Installation, sculptures, photos and videos comprise Ana Paula Oliveira’s new exhibition, entited Ainda que te vi. By transporting live nymphs cultivated in the Pantanal region to Galeria Millan, the artist explores the process of transforming materials and the tension between natural elements and their systems of cultivation, recurrent studies throughout her career.
In the installation, placed on top of large marble plaques suspended by steel cables, the nymphs will hover above the visitors. Magnifying glasses encrusted in the marble serve not only to bring the object closer optically, but also act as interfaces which allow spectators to watch the spectacle of the cocoons hatching. Placed there, between the visitors and the object, they filter and reassign meaning to this phenomenon, already in constant transformation. The set of sculptures create a system in which everything is controlled: from the height of the rocks to the degree of the lens and the time of hatching. In this way, it opposes the natural process in which the caterpillar selects where to settle and depends on conditions of heat and humidity to complete its cycle. This constructed scenario does not imply, however, a lack of conflict. There is a latent tension in the physical and temporal displacements proposed by the installation, in the expectation of the climax of the nymphs’ metamorphosis and in the relationships that will emerge between the recently-born butterflies flying around the galleries and the visitors to the exhibition.
It is precisely in these conflicts that the key of the artist’s production lies, as the art critic Rodrigo Naves commented: “the intelligence of the works consists precisely in placing them in a situation that is foreign to their natural position and, as such, making them more visible, potent and dangerous. And the interesting thing is that, with every new work, Ana Paula succeeds in achieving various meanings, though her procedures do not change radically.”
The show also presents a set of photos of hibernation boxes taken at the SESC Pantanal butterfly vivarium, which highlight the architectural relationship between the structures of the boxes and the nymphs, as well as mini-videos that show the exact moment in which the cocoons hatch and the butterflies prepare to come out into the world.