masina pinheiro & gal cipreste and savka
a visual dialogue
For this issue we invited photographer duo Masina Pinheiro and Gal Cipreste from Brazil to our A Visual Dialogue with Savka from Ukraine. They instantly connect via their common passion for FKA Twigs and take inspiration from her new album Eusexua for their exchange. As Savka worked in Kyiv, kamikaze drones were being shot down overhead and across the world Masina ended up sick and in hospital. Regardless they kept a positive spirit while exchanging ideas and are keen for another collaboration.
exhalation
Savka:
Hi, I’m glad to meet you and look forward to future cooperation for see:zeen. It’s a little touching, because it’s the first time I’ve had such an experience.
Masina:
Glad to meet you too! It’s certainly going to be so interesting and intense, I imagine. Can’t wait to start the conversation!!!! First time in an experience like that too.
Tomorrow we’ll answer the email properly and everything
(Loving what I’m seeing here on your ig)
Savka:
It is absolutely reciprocated! I really love your art.
Please tell me how we should start our visual dialogue
Masina:
Hi! we were really planning to write to you today!!! I think I have an idea
When I learned that it would be you, I looked you up here on Instagram. Loved the work. Then I saw your story, it was FKA Twigs performing Eusexua. I thought immediately “I can’t believe it, we love it so much, what a coincidence”.
I was thinking that, maybe, our visual dialogue can circle around the meaning of Eusexua... It’s not clear to me, but I feel like it may have a lot to do with self esteem and our bodies and expression and so much. Don’t know. We can learn more about it . Talk about it. What do you think?
Here it’s 10h28 am. A bit sunny in Rio
How are you?
Savka:
Wow, this is a great idea. I’ve loved Fka twigs‘ work since her first album LP1. Eusexua - as far as I understand it, it’s a complete merger of oneself with the environment. Not only mentally but also physically.
Today is the first cool and windy day in Kyiv. It seems that autumn has arrived.
Masina:
It can be so good for photography to figure out ways to talk about Eusexua for each of us. I find it sometimes so hard to merge, I’m definitely in need of letting go (it’s so hard to speak in english, hope it makes some sense)
Autumn! Here the seasons are so mixed and sometimes it’s hard to discern one from the other.
Savka:
Yes, to figure out ways to talk about Eusexua
Rio has a very interesting geographical and environmental location.
Masina:
I’ll read the lyrics to Eusexua again and find videos of her talking about it. We can think of starting the first photo soon. Do you want to begin? It’s so exciting.
Gal:
Hey Savka, how are you? I created this group so we could talk more informally and quickly about the first steps of the dynamic with see-zeen, if it’s ok for you?
I think we can go crazy with the definition: transcend/state of being/practice
Savka:
Hello guys
I propose to start with a photo that will reflect the inner state of today. How much we feel and experience Eusexua What do you think?
Gal:
Is it okay if you start? We are coming off a week where Masi was very very sick and is in the process of recovering and resting
Savka:
Yes, of course.
I wish you a speedy recovery and full of strength. Sending big hugs from Ukraine.
Okay, I’ll get you started and take the first photo
Masina:
Thank you, Savka!! It was such a weird week with hospitals. Can’t wait to start!!!!! Gal has been playing Eusexua all the time
Savka:
And did you see her performance for the On brand? She made a very beautiful teaser for the entire album there. I watch this video over and over again. I’m very inspired by it.
Gal:
We saw it! Amazing amazing and I can’t wait for this album. I truly like this idea of exercise in a polished and cold setting
Savka:
Yeah
Gal:
The one focal light was everything too
Savka:
One day in 2016, she posted my sketch, and it was then that I got acquainted with her work. And in fact, her work really resonates with me
Masina:
Wowwwww! It’s a long time ago and a beautiful start. What is the sketch?
I remember when she started too!! It’s so good that we found a connection so quickly. Hope she’ll see the photos hahaha
Gal:
Amazing to meet another fan of her. Our first series together was conceived and inspired, most of the feelings, by the album Magdalene. And of course, new interpretations of parts of the Bible
Savka:
Oh that’s so great
Savka:
Hi.
I’m resting a bit because last night it was a bit loud in the sky.
Tomorrow I plan to send you the first photo
How are you doing?
I work in an office in a production studio now, and I really want to get away from the office bustle that is around me. So I thought that this would be the starting point of our visual dialogue.
Masina:
This is absolutely perfect!!!! Your eyes look angry, so focused in something distant, your body movement evokes aggressiveness and beauty at the same time
Gal:
Absuuuuurd!!! This picture is fire, Savka
Savka:
Thank you guys
Gal:
I think we have the photo! We spent the day today at a friend’s tattoo studio, and looking at the photo you took, we thought about working with the body as well (which we don’t usually do much).
We chose a tattoo studio because it’s a place where we search for modifications too. We stuck bird whistle decals on the back as a study. Bird whistles are handmade objects created to emit/mimic bird sounds, and we’ve been researching this a lot in our work
Savka:
Wow, this is incredible. The tattoo parlor and bird whistles are very well combined. A tattoo parlor that makes an imprint on the human skin (the most vulnerable organ) and the whistling of birds as a symbol of freedom. This is how I understand it. In Ukrainian culture, there is an instrument called the flute, and the bird nightingale is a consonant name for the instrument and the bird.
Savka:
Hi guys, I’m ready to show you my next shot
Let me send it to the email.
Masina:
Fucking amazinggggg!
Savka:
Thank you.
Masina:
Hi Savka! We’ll start photographing as soon as we leave work today!! How are things over there for you?
Savka:
I didn’t have time to take any photos today, I just came home from work. Tomorrow I will take photos
Masina:
It’s been so hard to take the last photos!!!!
How are you???
Savka:
Hi, I’m going to finish the photo today too.
Masina:
I love taps, the symbol of them, controlling water, empty, glued on each other
Savka:
Love your vision of the photo and composition, incredible. I like the combination of details.
While I was shooting, several kamikaze drones were shot down in the city. And it seems that I plunged into darkness with the visualization in the photo. And reflecting on the war and how I try to keep my inner light.
Masina:
We’ll never be able to reach each other’s realities and understand what it’s like to grow up and live in Ukraine, but we don’t have to understand in order to have this dialogue. I’m inclined to feel before understanding, I’m glad you are sharing all this with us. Means a lot. Hope we’ll keep talking too. Don’t want to lose contact with you.
Savka:
I’ll show you Kyiv one day))
And I hope we can create a joint project and learn more about you
Masina:
Please, share with us! We’ll do the same with videos and images here. Whenever you feel (like it), we’re open. And let’s think of more projects in collaboration. Who knows, a video clip for fka too in the future hahaha
Savka:
Ouuuu yeah! Absolutely!
Following the collaboration we asked Gal, Masina and Savka about the experience.
What was your personal experiences of A Visual Dialogue process?
Gal and Masina:
We’ve always loved working with different collaboration formats (and even prefer our work to exist in this way) and the idea of photographing in a visual dialogue with someone who is so far away was very interesting. Thinking about the visual approaches we could have and, of course, bearing in mind the time zone difference haha. Besides all this, we loved being in this with Savka, whose mind and visual work were impeccable! It was fun and flowed very well.
Savka: I haven’t had this kind of experience before, and in general, the collaboration of two artists is always an exchange of energies. So, with a bit of excitement, I agreed and gained plenty of fulfillment and inspiration. Most importantly, I got to meet some amazing artists Masina and Gal.
How do you feel about the outcome?
Gal and Masina:
Still immersed! Our first series together “GH, Gal and Hiroshima” had FKA's album "Magdalene" as an audio-visual reference. So to be immersed again, as fans and artists, working with what she's creating, was a perfect exercise. It's clearly dedicated to her. That also means that FKA was a meeting point for the three of us.
Savka: I think we achieved a very interesting synergy. We work in different styles but share many common views and thoughts.
How will it affect the way you work, or think about making work in the future?
Gal and Masina:
a visual dialogue reinforced our desire for collaborations! For us, based on the themes we work with, the practice of collaborating is the pinnacle of our production, creativity and the possibility of telling what we need to tell can, in most cases, only happen in this way. Not every collaboration will have an effect, but we're glad this one worked very well.
Savka: I hope we’ll create a project together again—that’s something I’d like to see happen, and I mentioned it to Masina and Gal. Personally, this experience inspired me to consider creating works without graphics and surrealism. At the very least, I’d like to give it a try.