Cage. Steel, baked paint, 8 yellow canaries, birdseed and water. 5,00 x 2,50 x 1,85 mts. 2011. Museum of contemporary art (MAC), Santiago, Chile.
The series of works titled “Cages” derive of a study I carried out about habitable forms and spaces in connection with spatial policies and how such policies relate to our habitable spaces.
The formal diversity of these works is the result of the research I have done for most of my work. Constructive systems have been a constant element in the production of my work. In this particular case, my research dealt with structures and methods for the construction of bird cages, which allowed me to deal with visual subtleties on the verge of kinetic imagery. This has also allowed me to build large volumes and forms whose physical presence appears to float or even disappear; the transparency and lightness of the volumes engages in a relationship with the birds that inhabit these works.
In this series of works, birds are the catalyzing element that gives meaning to this series. As the birds become a living part of the work, they justify the constructive aesthetics of the cages. Because the birds move freely inside the sculptures, the work itself is completed by the birds inside sculptures; also, they operate as a formal compositional element. Wassily Kandinski’s master class “Point and Line on the Plane” becomes here point and line in the volume. The compositional incorporation of colour (by contrast) produces a work that is in constant change, based on the mobility of the birds; as a result, the works are constantly reinvented as a living organism.
This is a series of 5 works of variable dimensions that can also be developed as site specific.
Text by: Cristian Salineros F.
Photo credits: Michelle Bossy