40 nego bom é um real
40 black candies are R$ 1
2013, Collaboration (visual concept & collage) of Jonathas de Andrade's project.
16 screenprints on wood, 7 acrylic engraved boards, 40 Riso prints on paper, 40 laser prints on paper, variable dimensions.
My contribution to the work is the visual concept and the execution of the digital collage, designed in collaboration with the artist.
Through the collage we constructed imaginary scenes. The screen print method of reduced coloring led us to an illustrative esthetic to tell the story of an imaginary candy production.
from Jonathas de Andrade:
“Nego Bom" is the name of a very popular candy in the Northeast of Brazil. In portuguese, "nego bom" means literally something like “good black”, and “nego” (male) or “nega” (female) is also a colloquial - usually warm - way people call each other, but linguistically it carries historical – also colonial and racist – connotations.
In the local markets, there is a popular slogan that says "40 nego bom por R$ 1,00", something like "40 black candies for R$ 1,00", so the sellers say this slogan out loud in the streets to sell this candy. The project starts taking this slogan as a title.
"40 black candies for R$ 1,00" consists in two parts. First, a set of instructions for preparing this particular candy, illustrated by the perspective of a fictional factory. The recipe takes the whole production line — taking the bananas from the banana trees, carrying them, peeling them, smashing them, cooking the bananas with sugar, reaching the point, letting it cool / rest, separating in small pieces, finishing and covering it with plastic transparent paper. In the second part, all working relations are revealed in a sort of account table, where the calculation of the payment goes through friendship, favors and personal relations of all sorts. (for more information Jonathas de Andrade)
