The nest sculpture is composed of branches – an organic material that the artist has gathered and woven together to fill an existing void. In doing so, she reconstructs the instinctual use of simple, primitive techniques like those used by a bird. The nest constitutes a metaphor for a house, womb, or shelter; despite the longing to be filled inherent to its structure, however, it is fated to remain empty. The promise embodied in the creation of the nest – that of offering a secure, reassuring environment for the newborn bird – is entirely detached from the surrounding reality, while the nest’s large-scale form transforms it into a strange, threatening presence that cannot truly offer any solace.
In the video work Where the Salt Sleeps in the Bodies, She, the camera functions like a moving still photograph, opening up onto a world that exists in the gap between the real and the fantastic. This work similarly bespeaks a desire to return to nature, which is thwarted by human hubris. Like Icarus in Greek mythology, the woman in this work wears pelican wings made of feathers and wax and attempts to take off like a bird. Yet this woman-bird is unable to fly, and appears to be eternally suspended in a state of limbo, struggling to rise up from the ground in the light of the setting sun. The desire to transcend the limitations of the human body is inextricably related to the impossibility of doing so – a state that paradoxically embodies the possibility of greater proximity between the temporal dimension of reality and that of the image.
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