What is it? What is it made of?

Botánica Tropical is an installation. Synthesis of Brazilian Mata Atlántica species …hand crocheted. Natural size. Net-wrapped. Handknitted. Designed and dreamed with needle and calculator. Pounds of wool. Born out of love to and between nature. Epilogue to a life in the city, prologue to a moving to the Mata itself.
 

Botánica Tropical was exhibited on Galeria Portinari, FUNCEB (Foundation Centre  for Brazilian Studies), from may 10th to july 11th 2012. Was selected on open call for visual arts projects of said foundation.
 

Counted with the support of Nube Hilados.
 

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A celebration of Brazilian flora. Mata Atlantica
 

Traveling trough the concrete jungle while we yearn for the landscapes of the mata atlantica, leaving behind the city and imagining ourselves immersed in nature, is Desiree Clerc Borria’s proposal, who through her artistic and personal transformation creates Brazilian flora reproductions, using as her primary technique crochet with wool, with hand and machine knitting elements.

Seductive and suggestive names such as Musa Paradisíaca, Alocasia o Cattleya Rabiatanos, framed and clashing with industrial nets invite us to reflect on the violent deforestation process which one of the most biodiverse zones  in our hemisphere is suffering, leading several endemic species almost to extinction.
 

Knits filled with vitality celebrated their beauty and show on this proposal an impact beyond visual. They carry the observer through a world of tactile perceptions, where values of softness, warmness, tradition and handwork are realized; values forgotten in present times and lifestyle.

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Jorge H. Zapata Melo

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