Pedro Cera Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition …dirty words, which brings together works by João Onofre, Josh Shaddock, Julieta Aranda, Liam Gillick, Ricardo Valentim and Rita Sobral Campos.

João Onofre (Lisbon 1976) is presenting three drawings from two different series: Pen Running Dry, 2005 and Five Words in a Line (extended version)’, 2006. In Pen Running Dry there is a special importance attached to the revealing of the process of carrying out the work, which makes the written proposition coincide with the plastic production, while in the series Five Words in a Line (extended versions), (originally written by Gertrude Stein in 1930) there is the prevailing of the formal elements of the composition that incorporate the idea, which is successively renewed by the introduction of different logotypes connected to automobile culture.

By Josh Shaddock (Hattiesburg, MS, 1973), we are also presenting works from two series. Photographs from the series Dirty Mind, in which the author places his fingers strategically in front of the lens in order to truncate words written on advertising panels and which will result in the producing of another word with an obscene connotation, and a set of eight books (almost all of them literary classics) in which, in the respective titles, the preposition ‘and’ is systematically added to the preposition ‘or’. Adding or subtracting in the field of written language are two themes that are present in these works.

Julieta Aranda (Mexico City, 1975). She is participating with the presentation of a sound sculpture in which one may simultaneously listen to the 182 national anthems of the countries recognised by the United Nations and two graffiti pieces with a political content that belong to a series of works of revolutionary propaganda that she has been carrying out over the last few years.

Liam Gillick (Aylesbury, 1964). He is presenting two phrases placed on adjacent walls in the exhibition space. ‘Run to the nearest town’ and ‘OK I’m going to run to the nearest town’ seem to establish a condition of inevitability, of sluggishness on the part of the second subject who accepts the order of the first without even reflecting upon it.

Ricardo Valentim (Loulé, 1978). He is present in this exhibition with three works from the series Screen, centred on the idea of the construction of content and on the way different models are superimposed and give rise to new ones. In his own words, ‘The reason for representing an image or object through the process of silk-screen printing is justified in the purpose of creating a platform in which the content loses its referent and the framing completely fails’.

Finally, by Rita Sobral Campos (Lisbon, 1982) one may see two posters from the series The Archivist. These are based on print proofs, and form the conceptual map of the wider project of which they are a part. These graphic constructions take place around the idea of coding, and their coordinates and legend subtitles have purposely been altered in order to make their reading more difficult.