Laura LimaMatinta Pereira, 2023
Laura Lima’s work often unfolds at the intersection of mythology, material transformation, and philosophical inquiry. Her sculptural environments invite the passage of time – welcoming natural processes such as discolouration, decay, and erosion as integral to the evolution of each piece. Working across installation, film, textiles, and performance, Lima constructs porous, tactile forms that resist fixity. Gaps and tensions within her woven structures activate space, drawing viewers into a shifting encounter where movement and perception become part of the work’s unfolding.
‘Matinta Pereira’ takes its name from a figure in Brazilian folklore – an ancient witch who transforms into a bird at night, perching on rooftops to frighten inhabitants into offering food. Rooted in stories most commonly told in Brazil’s North, yet varying across regions, Matinta is both feared and pitied, embodying transformation, cunning, and a hunger that cannot be easily satisfied. In Lima’s interpretation, the spirit is rendered through an intricate web of raw cotton threads, dyed with natural pigments interlaced with steel wire. The resulting form appears suspended, spectral, and alive with tension. As with the folklore it draws from, the work occupies a liminal space between human and animal, presence and absence, myth and material memory.
