{"id":5736,"date":"2020-03-19T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mariafernandacardoso.com\/?p=5736"},"modified":"2020-03-27T22:34:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T22:34:52","slug":"weaving-a-tiny-web-of-intrigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mariafernandacardoso.com\/es\/weaving-a-tiny-web-of-intrigue\/","title":{"rendered":"Weaving a Tiny Web of Intrigue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Fortescue ARTS EDITOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Maria Fernanda Cardoso with her photos of the Maratus spider. Picture: Daniel Boud <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEW people would call any kind of creepy\ncrawly \u201ccompletely charming\u201d. But Maria\nFernanda Cardoso does. And the celebrated\nSydney artist will use a $50,000 fellowship\nto photograph Maratus spiders in the midst\nof their most risky sexual gambits.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether they make you shudder or\nnot, Maratus spiders are unarguably\nspectacular. Incredibly tiny at just
\n5mm long, they boast iridescent,\nvibrantly-patterned abdomens that they\ndisplay like peacocks.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maratus\u2019s mating ritual is a\nhigh-stakes performance in which the\nmale stands to be abruptly eaten by the\nfemale, whether she allows him to become\nher lover or not.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardoso refers to the male spiders as\n\u201cthe first performance artists\u201d. If so, the\nfemales certainly make them suffer for\ntheir art.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using her new fellowship, Cardoso will\ncapture the spiders twice. First she will\ncommission citizen scientists around\nAustralia to corral live specimens.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, she will capture the spiders\nwith a camera \u2014 Australia\u2019s only\nVisionary Digital BK Plus Lab system,\nlocated at the Queensland Museum. The\ncamera represents the latest technology\nand enables even the tiniest creatures to be\nphotographed in almost molecular detail.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting series will go on view at\nthe Museum of Contemporary Art\nAustralia, which is Create NSW\u2019s partner in\nawarding Cardoso the second annual New\nDimensions fellowship. The inaugural\nwinner last year was Denis Beaubois.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardoso is a celebrated artist who has worked with objects from nature ever since her arrival in Australia from Colombia in the late 1990s. Emu feathers, starfish, earthworms, seahorses and taxidermied frogs have all appeared in her aesthetically beautiful, painstakingly-crafted work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003 the MCA honoured Cardoso\u2019s\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

work with the solo exhibition, Zootopia.\nIn the same year, her art was shown in\nthe Colombian pavilion at the
\nVenice Biennale.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardoso was born in the Colombian city\nof Bogota, where her parents \u2014 Alfonso\nCardoso and Eugenia Mantilla de Cardoso\n\u2014 were distinguished architects. On\nweekends the young Maria Fernanda\nwould go with her father and sister into the\nbush, where they studied nature through\nmagnifying glasses.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019d be looking at fungi and mini\norchids and snails. (My father) was really in\ntune with the natural world,\u201d Cardoso says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But life in Bogota was far from idyllic.\nCardoso recalls the bombings, murders\nand assassinations during the drug cartels\u2019\nreign of terror in the 1980s.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was like, every day. It was like, it will\naffect you one way or another. There was\nthis time they blew up a shopping mall and\nmy father was on his way there,\u201d Cardoso\nsays. Hearing of the explosion, Alfonso\nCardoso turned back and survived. But the\ntrauma was all around.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I grew up you will see dead\npeople from time to time by assassinations.\nYou will see dumped bodies and things like\nthat,\u201d Cardoso says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artist used taxidermied animals in\nmuch of her earlier Australian work,\nsaying this was her way of confronting\ndeath. But now, firmly settled in Sydney\nwith her husband, children and the\nbountiful garden she has taken years to\ncreate, Cardoso is ready to photograph life.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy work can be freer because I\u2019m\nmuch happier. Living here is amazing, it\u2019s\nso peaceful,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for those Maratus spiders, she will\nphotograph as many species as she can\nfind. She has already captured some of the\nspiders in her 2016 photographic series,\nOn The Origins Of Art I-II. In 2018 the\nseries was purchased jointly by the MCA\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Fortescue ARTS EDITOR FEW people would call any kind of creepy crawly \u201ccompletely charming\u201d. But Maria Fernanda Cardoso does. And the celebrated Sydney artist will use a $50,000 fellowship to photograph Maratus spiders in the midst of their most risky sexual gambits. Whether they make you shudder or not, …<\/p>\n

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