RISE OF THE BIRD PEOPLE

My show at Objectos Misturados gallery in Viana do Castelo, Portugal is my first solo-show, developed entirely in the last six months since I moved to Lisbon together with Aitch.

Visually the pieces are very much influenced by imagery of Spanish and Portuguese explorers and "conquistadores" from the 15th - 17th centuries, by pictures and illustrations of birds, Islamic miniatures depicting battle scenes, and by sci-fi and horror movies like The Twilight Zone, Planet of the Apes or Hitchcock's The Birds.

The series brings a twist to the self-centered portraits of conquerors, replacing the human face with bird heads, and it depicts a fantastic world of the future, in which humans have slowly devolved into savages or even wild animals, and the world is ruled by a race of super-birds, who are conquering the last human groups. Thus the human history of conquests and extinction of other human communities and entire species of animals, repeats itself but finds human race in the opposite role, that of a species which is hunted and almost extinct. The illustrations come from a fascination for myths, eerie folk stories, fantastic scenarios, but can also be viewed as an invitation to modesty and more respect for nature and all the earthlings.

For inquiries and purchases write at objectos@objectos-misturados.pt