Rafael Bensuaski Vieira
Artist Statement
Shadow Works: Field Notes on Contemporary Archaeology originated during my time at Laguna Honda Hospital’s dementia unit in San Francisco, where I worked with Art With Elders (AWE)—a nonprofit dedicated to promoting healthy aging through a Socratic approach to studio art.
Most of my students, initially in full cognitive health, came from non-artistic backgrounds and sought to develop creative skills, often inspired by the beauty of nature and everyday life. However, as I accompanied them through the aging process, many eventually entered the depths of senility. In those final stages, I observed a profound shift in their artistic expression—moving away from landscapes and realism toward abstraction. Their new aesthetics, resembling the primitive shapes and patterns found in ancient cave art, seemed to mirror a subconscious preparation for the unknown—an artistic acceptance of the hereafter.
As I continued teaching at seven different sites over twelve years, I repeatedly witnessed this transition in artistic motifs. It led me to question: Were these abstractions learned, or were they an innate expression of the primordial self—an ancestral calling, a universal language? The Jungian concept that “the Ancient still controls a majority of our lives and what we think of as conscious living” provided a compelling framework for my exploration.
Shadow Works serves as a visual dialogue between man and symbol, reflecting on the persistent presence of archaic themes in contemporary life. Symbols such as the eight-pointed star, bodily cross layout, and sun wheel—first experienced in sacred and ritualistic spaces thousands of years ago—continue to permeate nature and modern consciousness. These markings are not mere remnants of the past but subliminal and deeply personal expressions of the collective unconscious.
From my work with AWE to a contemplation on topophilia—the emotional connection between people and places—Shadow Works examines our primal need to leave a mark. It explores the human tendency to project personal emotions onto landscapes, creating deep site-specific connections. By stepping outside the traditional artist studio, armed with a camping backpack and push cart of supplies, I conducted nocturnal field studies, navigating the megalopolis and its poetics of space.
However, I also encountered the stark realities of urban nightlife—the neglected, the displaced, the overlooked—and was often mistaken for someone lost to the streets, caught between addiction and mental illness. As Carl Jung noted, “The shadow contains, besides the personal shadow, the shadow of society… fed by the neglected and repressed collective values.”
At their core, Shadow Works are field notes from these urban encounters—site-responsive and time-based reflections on the aesthetic, historical, religious, symbolic, educational, economic, and ecological significance of place. They are acts of preservation and simulated restoration, forming a coded visual map of my movements through the city’s layered landscape.
About the Artist
Rafael studied contemporary arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, where interdisciplinary studies introduced and deepened his understanding of abstraction. Under the guidance of Bay Area abstract thinkers, he developed a practice that continues to push the boundaries of memory, place, and symbolic expression.