Cildo Meireles

A large-scale, three-room exploration of an entirely red environment.[10] The title of the installation refers both to the scientific concept of chromatic shift (or chromatic aberration) as well as to the idea of a "shift" as a displacement or deviation.[11]

The first room, called Impregnation, is approximately 50 m² and filled with a number of everyday, domestic objects in a variety of different shades of red. The effect is an overwhelming visual saturation of the color. Upon entering the room, the participant experiences an initial shock from the visual inundation of red. Dan Cameron writes that "one's gaze is literally thwarted in an effort to gain a purchase on the specificity of things."[12] Because of its lack of chromatic differentiation, the environment appears to lack depth. Cameron argues that the longer a participant stays in the room the more aware they become of the color's negative, unsettling psychological impact on them.[13]

The second room is called Spill/Environment and consists solely of a large pool of red ink spilled from a small bottle on the floor, evoking mental associations with blood. The amount of liquid on the floor in comparison to the amount which the bottle could conceivably hold is disproportionate. The redness on the floor extends throughout the small room to the edge of the darkened third room, an effect which lends itself to feelings of foreboding and uncertainty.

The third room, Shift, contains a washbasin attached to the wall at a 30° angle illuminated by a direct beam of overhead light. A red stream pours into the washbasin from a tap, also at a 30° angle, allowing the liquid to pool in the sink before draining. The feelings of disturbance experienced by the participant throughout the installation culminate in this final room. Since the room is completely dark, the sole focus is placed on the washbasin.[13] While the connotations of blood which appear throughout the installation are at first rather vague, like in the initial saturation of red in the first room and in the ink spill of the second room, in the third room this association with blood becomes much more explicit, creating a final, visceral reaction to the color within the participant.

Art historian Anne Dezeuze has commented that the "cinematic" installation as a whole articulates a certain sense of menace within participants because of the intense repetition of the color red throughout the three rooms.[14] Like most of Meireles' other artworks, Red Shift takes on political undertones when examined in light of Brazil's military dictatorship which lasted throughout the creation and exhibition of this piece.[13] For instance, the red liquid pouring into the washbasin has been seen by some art historians as a visual representation of the blood of victims murdered by government authorities.[13]

A minimalist sculpture, on a Lilliputian scale: Meireles calls it an example of “humiliminimalism” – a humble brand of minimalism. He wanted it to be even smaller, “but when [he] sanded it down to [his] nails, [he] lost patience and stopped at nine millimeters." Unlike most minimalist sculptures it is no mere object, but it is meant to be as richly symbolic, sensuous and potent as an amulet.[15] Each half of the tiny 9mm by 9mm by 9mm cube is made of pine and oak. These two types of wood are considered sacred by the Tupi people of Brazil.[16] The title refers to an unofficial geographical (and metaphysical) region that lies to the west of Tordesillas. According to Meireles in a statement he made about the artwork in 1970, this region is "the wild side, the jungle in one's head, without the lustre of intelligence or reason...our origins." It is a place where "there are only individual truths."[13] In the same statement, he notes that he wants Southern Cross to be perceived as a physical representation of the memory of the Tupi ("people whose history is legends and fables") and a warning to modernity of the growing self-confidence of the primordial which will eventually result in an overtaking of the urban by the natural.[13] Meireles' statement is also political. It is a caution against indifference, especially against indifference towards Brazil's fading indigenous population. The tiny cube is meant to be placed alone in the middle of an empty room in order to emphasize the reality and the power of indigenous belief systems in the context of Eurocentric modernism.

An art project with political undertones that was designed to reach a mass-audience. This project manifested in multiple ways, two of the most well-known being the Coca-Cola project, and the Banknote project. Insertions Into Ideological Circuits was based upon three principles as defined by Meireles: 1) In society there are certain mechanisms for circulation (circuits); 2) these circuits clearly embody the ideology of the producer, but at the same time they are passive when they receive insertions into the circuit; 3) and this occurs whenever people initiate them.[13] The goal of Insertions... was to literally insert some kind of counter-information or critical thought into a large system of circulated information. Meireles inserted something that is physically the same, though ideologically different, into a pre-existing system in order to counteract the original circuit without disrupting it. The project was achieved by printing images and messages onto various items that were already widely circulated and which had value discouraging them being destroyed, such as Coca-Cola bottles (which were recycled by way of a deposit scheme) and banknotes. Meireles screen-printed texts onto the Coca-Cola bottles that were supposed to encourage the buyer to become aware of their personal role in a consumerist society.[13] The project simultaneously conveyed anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist messages. Building off of that concept, Meireles also used money as a theme and produced his own replica banknotes and coins (1974–1978) which appeared very similar to genuine Brazilian and US currency but with zero denominations clearly written on them, e.g. Zero Dollar.[17][18] Mieireles also wrote critiques of the Brazilian government on the banknotes, such as "Who killed Herzog?" (in reference to journalist Vladimir Herzog), "Yankees go home!" and "Direct elections."[6][14]

A labyrinthine structure which invites the visitor to walk across eight tons of broken plate glass.[19] The maze is composed of "velvet museum ropes, street barriers, garden fences, blinds, railings, and aquariums" and in the center of it is a three-meter ball of cellophane.[20] Meireles notes that an essential part of Through is the sense of psychological unease that comes from the participant's realization of the different sensory capacities and capabilities between the eyes and the body.[13] For instance, the eyes can see through the glass parts of the work, but the body is physically impeded from passing through parts of the space. Furthermore, the sound of crunching glass underfoot while navigating the maze can be off-putting. He wanted the participant to experience psychological tension between the appreciation of the sonic and the appreciation of the visual. The work, Meireles says, "is based on the notion of an excess of obstacles and prohibitions."[13] Meireles drew some of his inspiration for this installation from writer Jorge Luis Borges, whose subject matter sometimes included the concept of the labyrinth. Meireles also wanted the participant to experience feelings of awareness and attentiveness that come from walking a labyrinth.[1]

A tower of hundreds of radios, each just audible and tuned to stations of different languages to evoke resonances of the Tower of Babel in the Bible.[21] In the story, before the destruction of the Tower of Babel by God, every person on Earth spoke the same language. Meireles' Babel acknowledges the multiplicity of language that resulted from the Tower's destruction in the story. The artwork contradicts the notion of one universal language, emphasizing that the pursuit of commonality is futile. Paul Herkenhoff points out that Babel also has autobiographical meaning for Meireles, as radio was a common method of widespread communication in Brazil during the artist's youth.[22] The work also speaks to globalization. Meireles parallels the unity of humanity before the fall of the Tower of Babel with the present-day unity which has resulted from globalization despite numerous language barriers.