Amazonia Collection: Aepyornis, Gallimimus, Palaeomastodon

Studio Orta - 5504_a.jpg
Studio Orta - 5504_b.jpg
Studio Orta - 5504_c.jpg
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Date: 2010 - 2010
Ref: 5504
Materials: 4 Royal Limoges porcelain fossil casts, enamel and platinum drawings, wood, lacquered glass, certificate of Moral Ownership
Dimensions: Table plinth: 100 x 100 x 110cm
Exhibition history: 2012 Field Museum, Chicago, USA; 2011 Galleria Continua Le Moulin; 2010 Natural History Museum London
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta

Lucy + Jorge Orta cast these porcelain replicas from dinosaur specimens in the Natural History Museum palaeontology collection in London. Bones are memento mori, reminders of death, but the egg is birth, the start of life. The motifs enamelled onto their surfaces are drawings conducted by the artists during their Amazon expedition in 2009. The act of drawing on the past can be seen as the activity of life itself. Seeing ourselves as occupying a moment in time, through the reflection of the mirrored surface of the plinths, makes us question our arrogance over nature and the need to work with it rather than against it. The porcelain fragments of life are tender and precious, recording the beauty and wealth of our planet, past and present.