Maria Fernanda Cardoso

Born Bogotá, Colombia, 1963.  Lives Sydney, Australia

Cementerio - jardín vertical (Cemetery - Vertical Garden), 1992
Artificial flowers and pencil on wall
Dimensions variable
Collection Miami Art Museum, museum purchase with funds from Lang Baumgarten

Credit line: Reproduced with the permission of the artist
Photo credit: Nancy Robinson Watson

Violence has become a fact of daily life in María Fernanda Cardoso's native Colombia, and her installation, Cementerio - jardín vertical (Cemetery - Vertical Garden) of 1992 deals implicitly with the theme of death. The installation is based on the traditional custom of honoring the dead by visiting departed loved ones in mausoleums and placing flowers in their crypts. The clusters of flowers and delicate pencil arcs in this piece suggest a garden, and invite the viewer to speculate about how humanity tries to impose its own order on nature. The flowers will never die, of course, so they continue to evoke the memory of the departed, as well as hinting at the idea of eternal life for the living.