Carlos Amorales is presenting Nube Negra, one of his most iconic installations, at the Fundación Casa de México in Spain. Carlos Amorales is presenting Nube Negra, one of his most iconic installations, at the Fundación Casa de México in Spain.
Nube Negra features thirty thousand butterflies and moths from three hundred different species, each one cut from black paper and attached individually to cover the walls, ceilings and corners. The result is a sense of collective movement and an unpredictable natural phenomenon that transforms the architecture. This large-scale installation transforms the space into an immersive experience.
Amorales plays with the notion of beauty in a piece that focuses on the viewer’s perception. Viewers are confronted with a re-evaluation of their preconceived ideas through an installation in which seduction and repulsion form part of an allegorical whole about mortality. The simplicity of the material contrasts with the visual complexity of the whole, which takes on an almost sculptural dimension.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Nube Negra is its scale: the work can include up to 30,000 individual butterflies, arranged differently in each installation. This numerical component is visually striking and reinforces the notions of collectivity, multiplicity and accumulation, as well as repetition as a visual language. Conceived in 2007, Nube Negra has been presented at major cultural institutions internationally. It is part of Amorales’ broader research into systems of representation, visual archives and symbolic languages.
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