we are reservoirs. (np)
There have been moments when I wanted to feel close and instances when I needed to be closer to. I wanted to feel close to a certain footing on hallowed ground; hollowed clay with a gold plated veneer. I needed too, to be closer to her when she returned with each spell of each day, presumably by virtue of the recitated ‘hails’ reverberating from our furthest reach - these extremities. And so I started to look for her in the thinness of the night (an anxious appeal) ; in the swelling and sprains of marigold florets that hold vigil (each questioned separately); in the light bent by the waves of the lake (she too saw the figure); and in the profound procession of the sun (a most significant revolution).
Something else is happening.
Erika DeFreitas and I met one afternoon over tea. We didn’t know each other, I had been following her work and hoped that she would want to realize something together at AKA. I left our meeting at ease, and happy, instead of rehearsing all of my words to find a statement that would cause me embarrassment. While DeFreitas’ work was familiar to me, her presence and her way of being were the clearest demonstrations of her intuitive practice. This meeting in 2018 would have resulted in a physical exhibition at AKA this September, now postponed. While we continue to plan into the anxious future, incredibly DeFreitas has created new work.
Something else is happening started with the artist’s meditations through the Hail Mary prayer. The body of work is guided by DeFreitas’ relationship with the Virgin Mary. One that we needn’t understand to know that DeFreitas found sleep by repeating the prayer, later typing it out in streams of consciousness.
Finding connection in the process and repetition and so I started to look for her in the thinness of the night (meditations) are individual pieces that begin in the same way, through DeFreitas’ intuitive actions finding their own pace and pattern. The Hail Mary prayer is one traditionally used to glorify the Virgin, to ask for her intercession, and it is the foundation of the Rosary prayers. It is a mantra, repeated words to set intention and find peace. In March, Pope Francis prayed to the Virgin Mary, asking for protection from Covid 19. Within Her multitude of meanings, I think that Her main role is to be a symbol of hope.
DeFreitas continues her journey with the Virgin Mary through a series of videos, punctuating her typed texts. she looms in the resemblance should it be so anxious is focused on the artist’s face and mouth, pictured in slow, deliberate movements letting the sun dance upon her face, and settle on her tongue. DeFreitas’ hands emerge to encourage the sun, the Virgin Mary, inward in a prayer-like embrace never trapping the apparition (does she want to?), just holding Her close. In as it is, or even, perhaps a recitation and emigration she cradles the sun, at times seeming to catch hold of it, only to see the light move across her skin yet again.
As an aside, it’s important to appreciate the vulnerable work that DeFreitas does with her body, the performance of her limbs, allowing the unknown viewer to consume her actions, in past work like The Truth of Lineage (2007), the actions of her loved ones.
In 1917, three children from the city of Fátima, Portugal prophesied that the Virgin would appear and perform miracles on October 13, 1917. This was the Miracle of the Sun. The various accounts of this event and subsequent investigation is incredibly captivating. something else is happening is a gorgeous retelling, with witness accounts overlaid on a blazing white sun, cut with a frame of black, at a time when my eyes are desperate for a blink and reprieve. The video watches like a few blissful moments in the grass, patiently waiting for a solar eclipse, an ambient meditation how-to.
DeFreitas’ ability to create and share this private, close work revealing anxiety and sleeplessness in an unreal year is a near miracle to me. She allows the viewer to witness a creative coping or working through; an inner relationship with a woman venerated for her role as a mother, a protector, and a sufferer.
Tarin Dehod
Erika DeFreitas is a Scarborough-based artist whose practice includes the use of performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, works on paper, and writing. Placing an emphasis on process, gesture, the body, documentation, and paranormal phenomena, she works through attempts to understand concepts of loss, post- memory, inheritance, and objecthood. DeFreitas’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She was the recipient of the TFVA 2016 Finalist Artist Prize, the 2016 John Hartman Award, and longlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.
