Laura LimaNinho Comunal (Communal Nest) #7, 2023
Laura Lima’s work has long defied categorisation – evading even the most provisional frameworks through which contemporary art is often understood. Based in Rio de Janeiro, her practice was shaped early on by interests in law and philosophy, and continues to draw from these disciplines as it engages questions of structure, agency, and perception. Her work builds upon the conceptual legacies of post-relational art and reflects the aesthetic and at times political principles that emerged in the wake of Brazil’s Neo-Concrete Movement, both in theory and in practice.
Lima’s installations often involve worn or repurposed objects, constructed or pre-existing environments, and ‘live’ agents – human and non-human alike. This layered use of materials and presence underscores her commitment to assemblage as an inherently unstable, evolving form. In ‘Ninho Comunal (Communal Nest)’, Lima creates a habitat designed to house various species, including birds and their potential predators. Constructed through the meticulous deconstruction of straw hats, combined with wooden sticks and perches, the work becomes a complex, functional architecture. It sits within what Lima refers to as her ‘ornamental philosophy’ – an ongoing conceptual framework she has developed since the early 2000s, in which aesthetics and function, design and ecology, are held in generative tension.
