Olhos Que Viram Peixes / Eyes That Saw and Became Fish

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OL HOS QUE VI RAM PEIXES

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Pain. These pieces by Sheila Goloborotko were inspired by and illustrate pain. Pain of the bombardment of words: retinitis,chemotherapy, implant, surgery, loss of vision. Words of fear and panic that suddenly appeared in the prints of small blue eyes. My eyes. Eyes that saw and became fish. And from the deepest blue, shapes emerge. Planets, asteroids, viruses. So sovereign and powerful, so knowledgeable of our fate. Floating in serenity as if the time had stopped. And it really has, at least in our hearts. And we contemplate the peace of this beautiful work in silence. In the ecstasy of life and not only of pain. Jayme Mauro Goloborotko

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SIGHT / INSIGHT NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY September 18, 1999 – January 8, 2000 Olhos que Viram Peixes, Portfolio of 10 Prints Etching, Aquatint and Engraving Printed by the color viscosity method, 1998 Printed by the artist Print Collection, Cadwalader Fund Sheila Goloborotko writes of the painful circumstances that inspired this portfolio. “In October 1993…I received an unexpected international call from Jayme (the artist’s only brother), who was them…living in Brazil. In his warm, direct and anxious way he surprised me with the news that an opportunistic disease had invaded his immune deficient body”. It was possible that disease would bring blindness. “I told my doctor I could not become blind because my sister is an artist and I need to see her work.”” After arranging for her brother to come to New York to receive an implant of a powerful drug that could help control the retinal virus, Sheila Goloborotko set to work on a series of prints. She writes, “I worked beyond exhaustion…I wanted more than anything to materialize every artistic project I had in mind so my brother could see them.” When the portfolio was nearly complete, she asked her brother to write an introduction to the suite. He wrote, “ Pain. These pieces by Sheila Goloborotko were inspired by and illustrate pain. Pain of the bombardment of words: retinitis, chemotherapy, implant, surgery, loss of vision. Words of fear and panic that suddenly appeared in the prints of small blue eyes. My eyes. Eyes that saw and became fish.” As the artist explains “In Portuguese the past tense of the verb to see is at the same time to see and to become someone else, to be transformed by seeing.” He saw the finished portfolio after he returned to Brazil. His sister was having an exhibition in Brazil, in November 1995, and she “showed him the final prints of Olhos que Viram Peixes on their way to the museum. After his appreciation and thankfulness he returned to a darkened room, where his blue and tortured eyes felt more comfortable.” The show opened in late November. At the artist request, “the show was kept closed on December first, the international AIDS day, a “Day Without Art.” This event was the first to relate AIDS and the arts in Brazil.” Jayme Goloborotko died a few months later, in January 1995. Roberta Waddell Curator, Print Collection Miriam and Ira D. Wallace, Division of Art, Prints and Photographs The New York Public Library

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