How to build a villain?

Step 1: give her a face - it can be yours;

 

Step 2: trauma, intensity, strong personality; 

 

Step 3: think of a desire that guides the villain's journey; 

 

Step 4: a companion animal; maybe a goat; 

 

Step 5: use a personal fear to create the villain; 

 

Step 6: draw her in color and moral ambiguity.

 

Madalena Pequito's newest solo exhibition speaks to us of concerns that are as personal and private as they are universal. The works, always colorful, tell us stories about the artist's journey - her conquests, her defeats, her fears and expectations - and the ways in which we are both the hero and villain of our individual stories. In her latest work, the artist bares all of herself with courage and sensitivity and somehow, in her work, we see our flaws, our desires, our fears. From watering our wishes and hoping they’ll grow, to learning how to celebrate our victories in life, being those huge or tiny, the show is about duality and how important it is in life. A hero cannot exist without a villain, good cannot exist without some evil. Villains, those both in and outside of ourselves, exist so the hero-like parts can be highlighted and she does so by admitting the most antagonistic parts of herself contrasting with the intensely vibrant and hued drawings. I understand an exhibition as narrative, a show as a story, with, usually, a beginning, a middle and an end. “The plot of a story begins by giving the villain’s motive for her villainy.” (Cole, 2004). The desires that motivate our villain are clear and “crazy” - a dignified life as an artist, a wish to own a house, to create a family, to see equality in the world. The lack of voice experienced on a daily basis is enough to drive a person mad. Thinking of the steps in the beginning of the text, we are now surrounded by all kinds of villainy materialized in one body - the body of work and that of Pequito. And this concept becomes even more interesting when combined with the notion of womanhood, as behind every witch mask there’s a woman and the world is filled with anti heroes to femininity. Above all, ​​when speaking on narrative, ”the inclusion of a female villain can tell a reader the author’s views about his or her society. The reader can imagine herself out of an imprisoning life by reading about a woman who acts outside of social boundaries” (Cole, 2004). The same can be said about this show, where the artist is exploring how to build a villain.

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Text by

Maria de Brito Matias