Alex Flemming's Ecce Homo Series Critiques Brazilian Politics with Industrial Sinks

Alex Flemming presents his new series 'Ecce Homo' at Galeria Emmathomas in São Paulo, using colorful 1970s and 1980s Brazilian industrial sinks as his medium. The 64-year-old artist, based in Berlin for three decades, engraves human hands in various positions onto the pastel-toned sinks with diamond tips. This work creates a metaphor between the biblical passage of Pontius Pilate washing his hands and Brazil's current political situation, which Flemming describes as 'scabrous.' He argues that Brazilian elites, political parties, institutions, and market greed have collectively 'washed their hands,' leading to the country's dire state, and calls for self-criticism, including from the left. The artist sourced the uniquely colored purple, green, beige, and pumpkin sinks in Brazil after initial experiments in Berlin, where only white sinks exist. He engraved the drawings during an artistic residency at Fábrica de Arte Marcos Amaro (FAMA) in Itu. Flemming notes the sinks' forms recall both 18th and 19th-century Brazilian domestic altars and 20th-century coil televisions. Reflecting on art criticism and cultural production challenges under a conservative government, he states his work exposes his innermost self and that art must be independent of parties and the state.