The work with birds painted on tiles was inspired by the trip I made to Watoriki in the Amazon, where the Yanomami Indians lives, for the exhibition Yanomami, Spirit of the Forest presented at Fondation Cartier in 2003. During my stay, I spent much time with some people from the community who liked to draw. I observed that they had a book about Venezuelan birds and that while they were leafing through it and looking at the images of the birds, they were able to reproduce the sound of each one. They liked very much to draw the birds that they recognized and there were hundreds! I was impressed by their broad knowledge of the language of birds. So I took images of many birds from the book and painted them on the tiles, forming a large panel installed both inside and outside of the Fondation Cartier.
Adriana Varejão is a multidisciplinary artist using painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and photography. Her work reflects a very unique focus on the natural world while also incorporating decorative art, an important tradition in Brazilian popular culture that is deeply marked by European colonialism.