‘In this piece, a woman is standing in front of a cabinet, flanked by two birds representing her past and her present. She grabs the present in her hand, but her past remains beside her, impossible to leave behind. The woman’s spirit, growth, and origins are likewise represented by these birds.
Yet the birds are in coops. This nods to our attempts to categorise and frame events, to contain them in a way that enables us to understand them. What does it mean, then, that many of the coops are vacant? Does this show the expanse of possibility before us? Or the dearth of past events that enable the woman to face the present? Perhaps it is the future, with no bird to represent it, that is best symbolised through the emptiness of these constructed boxes.

This piece also makes a more direct analogy to some of the villages in Colombia that have suffered political violence, where massacres have occurred. Such is the reality in some parts of the country, and one of the consequences of this is often its inhabitants must live in some sort of fear. The past forever bleeds into the present, stains it, and leaves an indelible mark. Where we are born and the events surrounding that place are often too integral to ourselves to escape from. Our tragedies as much a part of us as our families or our own flesh.’ – María Berrío