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This painting and texts have their setting in a small coastal town 50km north of Lisbon, Portugal.
I was born in Lisbon, my early childhood was there and I have recently spent nine years living in Ericeira
(the name was derived from sea urchins.) Not long ago, Ericeira's primary economic source was fishing. Now, because the fishing banks have been depleted from overfishing, only half-a-dozen boats rated as "cottage industry" go out, on good days. Overtime, this turn of events, and also due to an historical bias against any other industry, has forced the inhabitants to turn to tourism for survival. This pattern repeats itself in quaint, picturesque localities all through southern Europe, the north coast of Africa and into
Turkey. The stress of having been forced to adapt to a slick, technological world without adequate preparation,of rapid communications and shifting boundaries after joining the EU has left these populations in shock while watching tv. Their 19th Century, preindustrialized world is crumbling and there are not enough resources, at the population's disposal, for sustained growth and an eventual possibility to cope. In this climate of contrasting anachronistic images, just a few kilometers to the south, in the province of Alentejo, the suicide statistics are the highest in all the European community. It is said that in some localities it is more common for people to die from suicide than from natural causes. What tourists don't seem to readily find in the people is the desperation beneath the surface congeniality of the day to day high season. In my work, I needed to find a way to flush out this "malaise", into the open. I have used metaphors, symbols, photos, sounds, paintings, texts and conversations."
Tony Cleto
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