Batatais, SP, Brazil, 1966
The Dance with Death in the Atlantic, 2014-2023
thread on non-woven fabric (embroidered), collage and pigment on paper
Collection of the artist
Isa do Rosário is an artist and storyteller. With her textile and embroidery work she addresses themes related to Afro-Brazilian history and memory. The installation Dança com a morte no Atlântico (2014-2023) was exhibited at the Liverpool Biennial in 2023. It represents the forced crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by thousands of enslaved Africans. Do Rosário uses elements of painting on fabric and also abayomis dolls created with a technique that doesn’t rely on sewing or glue.
For Isa do Rosário, the work symbolises life and death at the bottom of the ocean. It is a memorial for all of those who lost their lives in the transatlantic slave trade between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. During that period, Rio de Janeiro and its waters were the biggest port of entry for enslaved peoples on the American continent, with an estimated total of two million African men and women.