Okay, so the show follow-up has been a bit of a long time in coming but I couldn’t help it…I decided to extend my trip AGAIN…and headed to the beach for some much needed R & R right after the exhibition…and I mean, I couldn’t very well have come home a week before Carnival, could I?!

Onto the exhibition…Intersecao: Toronto + Botucatu…it was awesome!  It started at six with a round table discussion, which I was dreading, but turned out to be just fine.  Not that many people showed up because it started so early and to get anywhere in Sao Paulo by 6 o’clock is borderline impossible!  There were probably only 10 or 15 people there so we got a nice discussion going about the project, and about these kinds of projects in general.  Everyone was really interested in how Zeca and I got on working together with the language barriers and such cultural differences, and how Zeca felt about letting someone come in and take over his shop.  But Zeca was so open and up for anything that none of that was ever a problem.  I picked up the language pretty quickly and Zeca and I are surprisingly similar despite having such different lives and histories.  We also talked a lot about the benefits and challenges of craft/design/social collaborations and what we each hoped to gain from this experience.  Oh yeah, and we made a video which everybody watched, and was looping throughout the show, and is highly cringeworthy!

I think it was at about 8 that things really started to pick up.  More people began arriving, drinks were flowing and Amy Winehouse was singing to us!  Everyone was so enthusiastic about the project and the pieces that I was truly overwhelmed with all the praise.  People seemed to be genuinely impressed and amazed at the outcome of such an unlikely collaboration…and these weren’t just Joes from off the street…I met some really interesting people.  For instance, the director of Casa Brasileira (SP design museum) who was very disappointed that we weren’t holding the exhibition there, a chef who invited me for a feast at her house next time I’m in Brazil, a contemporary artist who is working on a really interesting project in the favelas around SP (I might need to do a special post just on her because her work is pretty inspiring) and a guy who graduated from the first Man and Humanity class at Eindhoven…which I totally grilled him about!

I think the best part though, was seeing Zeca so happy.  A couple times before the exhibition he dropped hints that he might not even come into SP for the show…that would have been pretty devastating for me.  If Zeca hadn’t been there it would have felt like the whole project was a failure because the whole point was for him to make these kinds of contacts and because he was just as much a part of this as I was.  If he hadn’t been there it would have seemed like my project, instead of ours, which wouldn’t have been right.  But, he did come, and I could tell he loved every minute of it.  He was totally holding court and seemed very much at ease talking to everyone about the project and his other work.  You’ll see in the picture below…his smile says it all…total moment of pride!

So, it was a success.  The show went off without a hitch…the turnout was good…the response was good…a few pieces were sold…I don’t think we really could have asked for more.  I need to give big huge props to Gerson and Luciana at Galeria OVO for being so supportive and hosting such a great event because it gave Zeca and me an exciting goal to work towards and definitely propelled the project beyond where any of us expected it to go.  So, thanks guys!

I’ll be back soon with some sort of conclusion…grant report is due and I’ll have to settle back into real life in T.O…boooo…but for now check out the show pics…

Sorry you guys, I know I haven’t posted in ages, but as per usual getting ready for the show has taken far more time than anticipated.  You’d think I would have learned by now that everything takes about 50% longer than you think…but EVERYTIME I’m surprised!

Since getting back to Botucatu in the middle of January Zeca and I have been in the shop all day, every day…only stopping for meals and trips to the hardware store.  Well that’s not quite true, we had to make an emergency run into Sao Paulo to pick up more glue and waste a day in Bauru trying to extend my visa…pretty much the last thing we had time for.  It’s always the little things that you forget about and leave to the end that catch up with you.  Like for instance…the damn feet!  I sort of just pretended that I liked the feet and tried to stop thinking about them, hoping that when we saw it all come together we would both miraculously think the feet were fantastic…that didn’t happen!  So there was a mad rush to figure out what to do and off we went to the Casa da Borracha (House of Rubber) to see if they had any feet or levelers or stoppers or something that we could make work.  We ended up buying a sheet of 1″ thick rubber and making our own stoppers.  Luckily, the rubber cut like a charm on the table saw and both Zeca and I knew the minute we made just one that we had found the perfect solution.  We wanted something that would lift the pieces off the ground because all of this furniture is finished so that it can be used outdoors.  But, at the same time, we didn’t want to interfere too much with the form.  I hope you’ll agree our little custom stoppers work magic!

So yes, we ran into a few glitches, but it is all over now, the goods are delivered and the show is tonight!  Another short post as I have to prepare some sort of presentation…nerves people…wish me luck!