I only speak to birds when I’m mourning for this world

In “Bordando el manto terrestre” (translated from Spanish as “Embroidering the Earth's Mantle”), a 1961 work by Remedios Varo, a tower is depicted, where female beings, the “Creators of life”, are weaving the fabric of the world and its mysteries into existence: “Through digging paths back to the roots, a plane between present and past unfolds itself; a place where absence is part of a harmonious balance, completing a full circle, like the beginning and ending of a day with a bird’s warble.”

Varo's tower is taken as a starting point for the unfolding of the chaotic sequence of cosmic and esoteric events happening in the present world. Leaving the tower, the abstract frequencies of the cosmos travel through the complexity of existence, composing distinctive birdsongs and laments that kindly question the simplicity of genesis, death and time. Since the very beginning, humans were troubled by the essence of presence. They approached the unfathomable elements of the natural world with mysticism, allegories and fables. Throughout the history of humankind, people endeavoured to materialise death as a tangible presence, a dreadful entity that causes absence. It has always been incomprehensible that this state is part of a cyclic model.

“I only speak to birds when I’m mourning for this world” is an ongoing study about existentialism and mourning in folklore, where I propose a different perspective on the haunting presence of death in life, the one through the affection of tradition. I use both photographs I self-shot and archival photographs, altered with traditional and experimental techniques, to capture the movement of time, the essence of decay and the glory of rebirth.

Danae Danica was selected from among the applicants for “Sisterhood in Practice” online exhibition. This Artist Feature is part of Der Greif's initiative to bring female-identifying and non-binary voices to the forefront.