Translating a curatorial text about my work into English, published in Uruguay and Brazil, for the event "Art Experience Tour". The paintings for this event were curated and selected by Delloite Foundation, in 2012.
"The plastic artist Hedy Sissely Cordero Barrios meets with her artworks in strong intensity existential moments. Her paintings are related to dream worlds: shadows like ghosts, winged goblins, whispering angels. They refer to parallel "Universes" whose mixture with this daily routine we call "Reality".
There are, in her images, many questions thrown into the Cosmos... mythical messages commune with multidimensional beings: ancient voices bring invitations from distant games. Everything calls for permanence in this hinge time, Here and Now.
With the force of the colour in jets, in passionate contrast of opposites, on very high palettes sometimes... on very shy and melancholic palettes, other times, the artist plays to reinvent us.
Other times it is matter that imposes itself, colludes, to finish assembling the plot: there is darkness inside the being, but even so, there is a purpose to fulfil. Everything goes in circular thought, evidencing the eternal struggle of opposites, the constant return to Unity.
This intense but not apocalyptic work shows that other "Logic" is possible, other worlds are attainable. "
December 2018, Germany. Was ist deine Angst?
For this exhibition, artist Hedy Sissely Cordero Barrios presents a collage series in dialogue with a book—an interactive invitation for the audience to confront a single question: What is your fear? Those willing to engage can leave a written testimony within the book, its cover designed by the artist herself.
Through this collage series, Cordero Barrios examines the representation of the Seven Deadly Sins, suggesting an uncanny link between fear and human action. For centuries, religion dictated moral boundaries, defining right and wrong, heaven and hell—a cosmic negotiation where salvation was always within reach, provided one repented. But what happens when religion no longer serves as our moral compass? When humanity is free to determine its own ethical framework?
The artist envisions a world beyond inherited beliefs, beyond the binary of good and evil. In this evolving reality, fear and love emerge as guiding forces—but could another, entirely new energy rise beyond this duality? How would it manifest? How would it taste, feel, or shape the world? And most provocatively—can we even begin to imagine a paradigm beyond what we know?
November 2025, Brazil. Light vs Shadow.
Diptych, Acrylic on canvas by Sissely.
Between the Buddha and the Demon swirls the ancient threshold where light and shadow duel. The Buddha, radiant in his serene stillness, holds a flame born from within. It is not one cast by stars, nor borrowed by the sun, but distilled silence, a glow that pours outward, illuminating the edges of all things.
The Demon, with hollow gaze, beholds this interior blaze. Heat presses upon his face, not as torment, but as a question: What shapes his wholeness? What does it mean to shine, whether one is crowned or condemned?
For are we not the arena of this eternal struggle, of light daring to break through the dark, and shadow longing for redemption?
São Paulo, Brazil, 2026 CASA TATO 14
À Beira do Abismo
A mostra À Beira do Abismo apresenta um conjunto de trabalhos de artistas reunidos por uma linha tensionada pelo sentimento de suspensão diante da chegada a um ponto desconhecido.
Acolhendo expectativas que o grupo de artistas vem enunciando ao longo dos encontros dialógicos do programa Casa Tato 14, a curadoria selecionou obras firmes, atuais, de suportes e formatos variáveis, e que de maneira espontânea, representam um certo estado da prática e do debate crítico no campo da arte nos dias de hoje. O desejo de existir dos trabalhos escolhidos dos artistas dessa exibição apontam, ao longo de suas trajetórias, qualidades de caráter afeitos a força de vontade, obstinação, perseverança e dedicação.
Por marcar o início de um processo de reflexão coletiva mútua, a exposição À Beira do Abismo manifesta expressões artísticas como se vislumbrássemos um gesto similar não a um salto mortal do precipício, mas sim, a um mergulho profundo em águas misteriosas. Aqui e agora nos debruçamos sobre a noção de um controlado movimento em queda livre, que carrega intenções em comum para o sentido da conquista de um mesmo alvo almejado.
Nas paredes e piso do espaço expositivo compartilhado da galeria Casa Tato, vemos peças que remetem a temas importantes das discussões públicas sobre arte, sociedade e mundo na atualidade. São desenhos com caneta, nanquim, pinturas, colagens, serigrafia, tecidos. Novos modos de pensamento acerca de colecionismo e reciclagem de materiais pós-industriais diversos, autoretratos, video-performance e tapeçarias dispostos lado a lado, que remetem a abstrações, subjetividades e a dimensão empírica de paisagens interiores vivenciadas, imaginadas ou observadas em desconstrução / reconstrução.
À Beira do Abismo pode ser definida pela atenção a um momento inesperado da percepção, aquele instante em que nos damos conta do poder de sensibilização e realização da arte ao alcance de nossas mãos.
-Nancy Betts e Marcio Harum