Studio Orta

Lucy + Jorge Orta cast this porcelain replica from a specimen in the Natural History Museum palaeontology collection in London, a femur from the dinosaur Allosaurus. Bones are memento mori, reminders of death. The motifs enamelled onto the surface 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 vitrine, makes us question our arrogance over nature and the need to work with it rather than against it. The porcelain fragment of life is tender and precious, recording the beauty and wealth of our planet, past and present.