Overview
Satires in bronze, full of humour or biting sarcasm, questions and answers that often evoke strong emotions -those are characteristic features in the sculptures of Nelson Carrilho. The works “Identity – who cares?”, “We are going to Holland”, “Waiting for God” and the installation “Fools Parade”. Power and impotence, justice and injustice. Obviously, politics and the church are strongly embedded in his works. Carrilho is from Curaçao, an island swarming with the bronze busts of the former conquistadors. ‘Megalomania from the past, ridiculous idolatry’ as Carrilho call them. “Identity – who cares?” refers to this idiocy (it was made in celebration of the five-hundredth anniversary in 1999 of the discovery of Curaçao ), but it also lashes out at the authorities, who feel themselves losing their grip on the citizens and wriggle to hold on to their powers at all costs.