GOAN ARCHETYPES

Alex Fernandes
Curator: Prashant Panjiar

In October 2005, I photographed some of the pioneering personalities from Tiatr in Goa and
Bombay dressed in the stage garb of the characters that they best portrayed on stage. As I was
shooting the portraits, I realized that I was getting images that looked very similar to Mario de
Mirandas Goancaricatures, right down to almost identical costumes. Somehow even with an
exaggerated stage costume, the Tiatriste was transformed into easily identifiable archetypal
image before the camera.

Somewhere in the Goan psyche there areArchetypal figuresthat remind us of who we were as a
race, a culture and this is from where we draw to express our fantasy. We even recognize
fictional characters as entities for which we might predict behavior and sympathize. Ironically,
archetypes are not learned. They are inborn tendencies to experience the world. Strictly
speaking, archetypal figures such as the Bhattkar(Landlord), the Sasumaim(Mother-in-law), the
Neustakan'n(Fisherwoman) etc are not archetypes, but archetypal images that have crystallized
out of the archetypes. The images are objective, but universal.

For the Goan Archetype series (2016), Tiatristes Sylvester Vaz and Irene Cardozo E Vaz play
multiple archetypal characters in front of the camera, most of who are from the Tiatr stage.

Alex Fernandes, born 1963, is a photographer with professional experience in the advertising
industry in Mumbai and West Asia. In 2001, he returned to his home, Goa, to become its best-
known portrait artist. His signature retro black-and-white images grace the walls of many fine
Goan homes.Many of Goas well-known personalities,Tiatristes, musicians and contemporary
artists have had their portraits made by Alex.
Alex has exhibited his works in a number of solo and group shows in Goa and Delhi.