ISABEL CARVALHO
A Mão Esquerda das Trevas
07.03.2026
—25.04.2026
link | handoutIn The Left Hand of Darkness, ceramic panels are presented, produced predominantly with handmade glazes that incorporate ashes collected from wildfires in the Douro region during the summer of 2025. The ashes originate from various tree species (pine, eucalyptus, and oak), from waste and excrement of grazing animals, but are primarily derived from shrubs and groundcover, including grasses and heather — plants often underestimated and considered undesirable due to their high flammability, which makes them fuel for wildfires and associates them with the neglect of land management.
Yet these same plants are repositories of ancient memories: they were once ingredients in recipes used for self-care and embedded in knowledge systems related to health and well-being. The neglect and forgetting of their ancestral uses reveal how these species challenge historical hierarchies of knowledge and ways of being that are now in danger of disappearing.
The title takes its name from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel, which resonates with this work from the outset. Due to a temporary impairment of the right hand and under the influence of sedatives, the drawings were produced entirely with the left hand during the period of ash collection. This condition opened a space for new configurations of the imagination, activating different areas of the brain and grounding a set of gestures previously unexplored — perhaps more sensitive and intuitive, carrying an energy distinct from that of the right hand.
Clube de Desenho, Porto
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