Daisy

Pedro Proenca, who studied at the School of Fine Arts de Lisbon, is a rebellious figure who wanted to shake the artistic status quo of 1980s Portugal. To that end, he founded the ‘Movimento Homeostético’ in 1982, as a meta-critical attempt to revolutionise art itself. Hence the fundamental sense of parody Proenca’s art communicates. His images appear as a repository of cultural sabotage – drawn with equal relish from western art history and Greek literature, from the East and the primitive. His imaginative setting is peopled with allegorical men and animals. Nevertheless, Proenca’s allegories are not merely comedy. They also exist as a serious attempt to transform a difficult reality by the process of metamorphosis. His work – eclectic and symbolic – seems to take place in a delirium world. The resulting dream of sensual imagery represents an alternative reality, composed of layers of allegory, historical conceit and personal mythology. In that sense, some of his works exist in a similar sphere as caricature, from which it borrows certain motifs, as Daisy portrays.