I´m Your Mirror

In the Híbridos series, Josefina Ribeiro’s work reveals itself through an animal metamorphosis that moves from the real body to the unreal body, to the imagined body.

These imagined bodies, created from animals that exist in nature, become the inspiration for bringing new creatures to life. Bodies, legs, feathers, beaks, wings, and other anatomical elements are cut, assembled, and combined, giving rise to an imagined animal, a fantastic being. These creatures came to be known as “animals that never were.”

The cut-outs gave rise to drawings of various dimensions, which initially constituted the final artworks.

Later, the desire emerged to give dimension to the “animals that never were,” bringing the unreal body closer to reality through the use of the dimension absent from drawing: volume.

The animals were modelled using mixed techniques, including metal, paper, glue, and modelling clay, and were ultimately cast in bronze.

Mão de Fogo — bronze casting and technical support for contemporary sculptural creation.