palmilhas is part of a series of drawings of palm trees and islands, organized into four volumes of a publication on this theme, according to the geography of its content and the materials used.
«I no longer remember the reason, if there is one sufficiently objective, that led me and regularly leads me to this theme. There is therefore no reason to romanticize this small collection of palm trees and islands in such a way that it can be considered a philosophical work, a tropical itinerary, or even an adventure book. Perhaps an exorcism like so many others that are displayed on the walls, shelves, and closets of life.»

palmilhas emerges from a singular imagery, materialized in drawings and with drawing materials methodically chosen for each series of landscapes. From crossings between Cacilhas and Cais do Sodré, through Brazilian territory, summer holidays in the Algarve, to the paths of a youth in Porto, Hugo Oliveira maps out an intimate cartography, volume by volume, operating in an indiscernibility between memory and imagination. Each volume corresponds to a geography, but also to the topographical forms inherent to it, which, in turn, call for specific types of lines and distinct colours.

«The complicities created between the different elements of the drawing do not require many calculations or many rules, but, when well placed, they help to tame the gaze. The small format allows one to embrace the entire frame, and the landscape in front of us does not require great ocular movements.»

palmilhas is a digression in which graphite pencil, Indian ink, Faber-Castell or Rotring pens are accomplices in this gesture of inscribing on the horizon a tropical imaginary, where the gaze rests indefinitely and the enigmatic presence of Von Martius is invoked.

«Drawing palm trees came first, and the island setting was just a consequence with more dreamlike than epistemological origins. In the impossibility of building the house of our dreams, why not dream of the island?»