Paper Birds
11/10/2013.
By Diana Beltran Herrera
metalocus, ÁNGELA SOLÍS
metalocus, ÁNGELA SOLÍS
I've been always concern about this other part that is alive and is different than humans, I've always curious about the way it develop and how it survive and remain with the years. I've been aways interested in birds since my mother bought 2 and they were living home. I very much like them but those kind of animals as everything in nature is very vulnerable and timid.
When I went in 2011 to Helsinki to work with an artist, I saw the birds acting there in a free way, they seem to be really living. It was peaceful and amazing to observe them, I got another impression. I realized those animals, or plants or things were not different than me, because they need a place, a freedom and they develop a life. So as the experience was so rich I decide to capture them in this paper being the only material I had at the moment and try to have them closer to feel them, understand them and why not own them, because as humans thats what we like, but knowing I was not going to harm anyone or affect any life. As I enjoyed this so much I started to learn a lot about them and when I went back to Colombia I saw many birds in my city, being real animals. It open a new unvierse and started to appreciate more and respect more.
My interest is this sad relation from us as humans with the things that live around us, and trough my work I wanted just to said, look there outside are real things, that are beautiful, that are alive.
I was never looking to make a perfect bird, because I was more interested in the experience of relating with all this different animals. how is to experience to be closer to a tucan, or a flamingo, because i know in my normal life I cant do that. And by the time doing this work day by day I just reach to make them better and more realistic, which makes me happy.
Text.-Diana Beltran Herrera.
Diana Beltran Herrera, (b. 1987, Colombia) studied Design at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogota, Colombia where she graduated in 2010. She then studied experimental painting and moved to Helsinki, Finland in 2011 to study Ceramic Sculpture at Suomenkielinen School. Herrera's work seeks to explore the chillingly disengaged relationship between humans and nature in modern society. Using paper as her primary medium she is able to present notions of temporality and change, emphasising the process of transformation that continuously occur in nature as well as mankind. Herrera has participated in a number of group and solo exhibitions in her home country since 2011 and also had 2 solo exhibitions at Espacio ARTNEXUS (estudio del impacto de un movimiento en el espacio) in Bogota and Garaje Gallery (posturas) in Bogota. During her stay in Helsinki, she was also invited by Hanni Bjartalid (Faroes-Danish artist) to exhibit in "Is Anybody Home", a curated display at Nordastlantes brygee Copenaghen, Denmark (Oct-Jan 2011). Diana has been commissioned by agencies in USA (215mccann San Francisco), Italy (E- Graphics) Colombia, and many other countries. She has been participating in some international exhibtions as "AU gold" at Beers Lambert Contemporary in London, "The Art and Soul of Paper" in Norwich, UK, "Grace + Ritual 2013" at IAM8BIT gallery in Los Angeles, CA. For this fall, Diana is preparing her first international solo exhibition at Cornell fine art museum in Orlando FL. where she will exhibiting some sculptures of the local birds of Florida.
She is currently living in Bristol, where she is studying a MA in Fine Arts at the UWE. (university of the west of England).