Where precisely does historical memory end, and national mythmaking, fiction, and colonial narrative begin? Austin Martin White seized upon this very fault line in his solo exhibition The Lie, the Larp and the Lusophile, which commanded the entire volume of Capitain Petzel in Berlin. Running from 11 September to 17 October 2026, the show mounted a striking, materially driven interrogation of the fragility of historical knowledge and the ways imagery scripts cultural identity.
At the core of the exhibition, White positioned Antônio Francisco Lisboa—better known as Aleijadinho (1738–1814)—the near-mythic luminary of Brazilian Baroque sculpture. Hovering between archival documentation and oral folklore, Aleijadinho’s likeness and the celebrated figures of the prophets he carved for the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas took on reconfigured forms across White’s surfaces. Moving through the gallery, it became evident that in weaving this narrative, the artist drew heavily on the visual heritage of literatura de cordel—the inexpensive, woodcut-printed chapbooks that historically carried northeastern Brazil’s folk verse, politics, and street lore to the public.
What renders White’s practice singular is his enactment of historical dissolution directly within the tactile fabric of his mediums. Stratified surfaces built from polyethylene film, insect mesh, industrial rubber, vinyl, and spray paint laid bare how information degrades, is filtered, and fractures in transmission. Standing before monumental works such as Surveying for a data center in Congonhas (2026) or pinocchio (Aleijadinho green portrait), one encountered material that ceased to be merely supportive ground, turning instead into the very apparatus that shrouds and reconstitutes the past.
