Helena Almeida, Dentro de Mim, 1998

I have never come to terms with canvas, paper, or any other support. I believe that what has made me come forward out of these elements through using volumes, shapes, and stringis my deep dissatisfaction with problems of space. Either by facing these problems or refuting them, they have become the one constant of my work. I believe that I can say now that I paint paintings and that I draw drawings. It is not a question of exhibiting but rather exposing, and also of being able to communicate more deeply the ideology and character of "art"-acceptiing it and therefore being able to deny it.
Through photographs within drawings I believe that the same denial is made in a variety of ways. What I am exposing is not the "artist's imprints" but rather the representation and the denial of these imprints.
This denial means a rediscovery of another space while it also tumbles into another poetic trap. this happens because by placing myself as the "artist" in a real space and the spectator in a virtual space he exchanges imaginary space.
To become an unreality. To become an appeal to the possession of intimate joys. TO become at rest as in the drawings. To live the warm interior of a curved line. To meet again the peace of an inhabited drawing.

-this text was first published in conjunction with a solo show of the artist's work in 1976 at the sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, Lisbon, Portugal.