"Pure, unaltered female energy is the reigning theme in the artists’ work: free of beauty ideals or ornaments."

Fernanda Brum is a Brazilian artist from Porto Alegre who works with a variety of materials and mediums to explore the appearance of the body as a mean of expression, focusing especially on the female form and the position of women in society, a theme that is strongly tied to her personal experiences and political life in modern day Brazil.

Brum explores the fantastical appearance of key female characters and the ancestry of womanhood to create a dream-like universe where women are protagonists. From the crooked and mysteriously eerie old woman to the helpless girl, the story is deeply feminine in its rawest form, both in narration and in expression.

Currently, she uses sculpture as a medium to translate her interest in the female form and give life to these beings that stem from both imagination, and a striking, almost neglected reality.

As someone deeply in touch with the more mystical and hidden aspects of life, the artist draws from natural sources and colours. Using bronze and ceramics as her materials of choice, Brum adds depth with more organic features, such as hair, feathers, shells, seeds, hay and bones, which combined together create a sculpture embedded in mysticism.

Brum takes her feminine and female-inspired energy to the area of politics by engaging herself with the feminist movement – a rising force in the Brazilian scene thanks to the drawbacks in women’s rights to their own bodies, originated by the influence of religion in the government.

With her engagement in this movement, Brum sees a warrior reborn: from a body controlled by societal expectations, “A Woman Rises” comes from the ashes freed, and stronger than ever.

Text: Bijú Belinky / Photos: Artist Collection / Model: Marina Makemba)