collection | general collection | T | TABIBUIA chico, (Silva Francisco MORALES, known as)

TABIBUIA chico, (Silva Francisco MORALES, known as)

[1936, Silva Jardim, Rio De Janeiro, Brésil — 2007, Casimiro De Abreu, Rio De Janeiro, Brésil]

Chico Tabibuia was one of the twelve children his mother had with different fathers. Great-grand-son of a slave, he worked hard since his childhood. Having worked odd jobs, he owned a grocery store for some time, then worked as a lumberjack. At forty, he began carving on regular basis. The phallus is, obviously, the element that dominates all his sculptures. All parts of the body can be “read” as phallic symbols: the head (the head-gland), the legs and the arms, the neck, Exu’s horns, and finally the entire human or animal body.