art
#animals #birds #pottery #climatecrisis #saraconti
In Latin, memento mori This roughly translates to “remember to die” and has been a visual metaphor used in art for centuries, often in the form of a skull. . Vanitas still life paintings of the 17th century added other symbols such as hourglasses, clocks, extinguished candles, fruits, flowers, and game animals as constant reminders of the fragility of life. For artist Sarah Conti, the essence of existence is as much a subject as the birds she sculpts. She says they exist in a delicate balance in an increasingly threatened habitat.[Birds] We cannot evolve at the rate we are changing the world. ”
Surrounded by a family of avid bird lovers, the artist traces his interest in feathered creatures back to his childhood. The more I learned, the more I admired how birds have captivated the human imagination. Then, while enrolled at the University of Montana in Missoula, the outbreak of the pandemic made her unable to access her school’s studio space, causing her to spend more time outdoors. she says: She says, “All the time I spent in the studio turned into time searching for birds in wetlands and forests. I had the time and access to see many new species, which aroused great interest and wonder in me. .”
In 2020, Conti began thinking more about human impact on the environment, as well as political and social issues, and the ubiquity of birds, and our endless fascination with the bird world, expressed grave concerns. I realized that this is the proper way to do it. She focuses on the relationship between beauty and discomfort, emphasizing the duality of presence and absence, or the visible and the invisible. For example, “The Lost History of Women” shows how ornithological research has generally focused on men, in parallel with women being omitted from the human record.
Conti creates his signature bird shapes out of clay, often dozens at a time in his large-scale installations. For “(Im)Migration,” he created 75 pieces in about 75 days, applied surface treatments, and then fired them in a kiln. Although each individual component can stand on its own as an independent work, Conti says: Surrounded by works of art. I would like viewers to think about how this issue relates to their own existence and roles. ”
Audubon recently launched an ongoing series of quarterly magazines, “ aviary, And next March, Conti will be participating in Radius Gallery’s 9th Annual Ceramics Invitational. For more information, visit her website and Instagram.
#animals #birds #pottery #climatecrisis #saraconti
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