Denise Alves-Rodrigues (1981, Itaporã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) grew up in Araçatuba, São Paulo, until she moved to the city of São Paulo, where she got her bachelor degree in Visual Arts, with a specialization in sculpture, from the fine Arts University Center. Odd in her academic path, Denise later attended Comet Physics, Sferic Astronomy, Earth Moon System, Sky Recognition and Creative Writing courses. Currently based in São Paulo, the artist is part of feminism and astronomy study groups and is represented by the Sé art gallery, São Paulo. Today she lives and develops her artistic project within an artistic residency, within the scope of Ybytu project.

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Denise Alves-Rodrigues combines her strong theoretical basis within astronomy and technology with her artistic practice, resulting in a body of work of semi-scientific and profoundly intuitive contours. Highly appreciated on an aesthetical and artistic level, Denise’s artistic research coincides with her work on a surprisingly rational whole. She reflects upon what might be de fundamentals for fact knowledge creation, scientific evidence, by presenting a poetical approach to epistemology. How we find truths in Nature and ourselves escaping the methods established by others is a concern that is very relevant nowadays, and this elevates Denise Alves- Rodrigues’ work. Magic, witchcraft, errors and constellations are not synonyms of knowledge in general western culture, but, within the artist’s universe, they are key elements to our existence and they give us tools that make visible a lot more than science does, or at least different things than those science shows us.

At the Ybytu residency, the home-made experimentation with mechanical gadgets, electrical circuits, tests with electro-magnetism or electro-xamanism already existent in her work is now deepened and materialized under the theoretical airbag of physics and chemists english theorist Michael Faraday (Newington, Surrey, 1791 — Hampton Court, 1867). Faraday’s cage, an object created by this scientist who created the electromagnetism theory, is used to scientifically demonstrate that a surface, when becomes an electricity conductor, maintains a null electro-magnetic field in its center core, leaving the electrical current only on its edges. Following this theory, Denise Alves-Rodrigues is at the moment investigating the possibilities of an adaptation of this object to her artistic project. She is looking to create a suit to be worn by people that, like the cage, maintains the person inside it null, un-electrified, but that somehow produces energy, making way for a sort of alienation and immunity for the individual.

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The artist has participated in exhibitions in several cultural venues and institutions, the most recent being: Tavessias Ocultas, curated by Beatriz Lemos , at SESC Bom Retiro, São Paulo (collective, 2018); TRELA #3, curated by Flora Leite, at Ateliê 397, São Paulo (solo, 2018); Ocupação G.A.I., at the Red Bull Station, São Paulo (collective, 2018); Iminência de Tragédia, curated by Fabrícia Jordão and Talita Trizoli na Funarte, São Paulo (collective, 2018); Comuna Intergalática, curated by Fabiane Borges and Eduardo Duwe no E.M.A., São Paulo (collective, 2018); Vocação Para a Ruína, Study Proof, IFAC Arts, London (solo, 2019); masc | mask | masque, IFAC Arts (solo, 2020).