Adriano Costa makes sculptures whose simple materials and arrangements belie their panoramic cultural scope. Echoes of Minimalist art combine with the influence of Brazilian geometric abstraction, while at the same time Costa embeds his work with allusions to artisanal and arcane practices. Mass-produced objects also frequently appear within his assemblages in the form of ‘ready mades’ or objets trouvés.

In the new floor-based sculpture 'When Attitudes Become Farm' (2013), Costa continues to merge references to mass production and ancient traditions through the prism of minimalist art. The grounded square format recalls the modular floor sculptures of Carl Andre. Yet the contents – rugs, straw treads, printed fabrics, perforated pieces of wood – constitute a bricolage of diverse surfaces. The elements are tentatively reconfigured in what the artist calls a "'pre-sculptural' manner" … a moment in the process of constructing a sculpture in which the final form still has not been defined”. The mainly rectilinear format of oblongs and squares is offset by sheets of yellow-painted wood riddled with holes like giant slices of Emmental, two of which lie diagonally across the surface. The work’s title puns on that of the exhibition When Attitudes Become Farm, curated by Harald Szeemann at the Bern Kunsthalle in 1969. This iconic show ushered in the era of post-minimalism, during which the media and subjects considered available to art dilated dramatically. Costa is consciously working in this ‘expanded field’, injecting his work with allusions to rural life in developing economics, as signified by the 'farm' of the title and the cheap straw treads.