Amanda Lapus Santos

A rhapsody is a composition in one extended movement, typically one that is effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic, and yet blue can often be considered a somber hue. Hannah Gadsby once quipped, “Blue, if anything, is a feminine colour. It really is full of contradictions. Blue is a cold colour, on the cold end of the spectrum. But the hottest part of the flame? Blue. If you’re feeling blue, you’re sad. But optimism? Blue skies ahead! A blueprint is a plan, but if something happens not on the plan, where does that come from? Out of the blue!”

Like Picasso in his Blue Period, Santos has always been drawn to this colour and prone to pensive reminiscing. To draw herself out of sentimental nostalgia and in trying to reconcile the contradictions of this colour’s representations, these paintings and cyanotype artworks of are the artist’s recalling of blurred out memories, and celebrating things of bygone eras - a way of looking back to move forward. As seen in her hand-embroiderd piece Glacier III and her series paying homage to ice cream vendors, Rhapsodies is her way of creating permanence for ephemera that are slowly chipping away with time.

It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures. - Ally Condie