Wenn ihre Freunde noch ausgelassen Pachanga (=Party) feiern, zieht es die ecuadorianische Designerin Belen Mena in der Morgendämmerung hinaus aus Quito in den Regenwald entlan der ruta verde. In der Einsamkeit der Nacht beobachtet sie Nachtfalter.
Diese auf den ersten Blick unscheinbaren und von Vorurteilen und Fliegenklatschen bedrohten Tiere, die um Straßenlaternen flattern. Vorsichtig pflückt sie die schlafenden Falter von Blättern. Setzt sie sanft auf kontrastierende Hintergründe. Und fotografiert. Wie besessen sammelt sie diese Porträts und destilliert daraus Muster – created by nature.
Europäische Schmetterlingsforscher entdecken unter Belens Fotos nie gesehene Falter, Gestalter dagegen sehen sofort die kreativen Potenziale der Grundmuster, die Belen aus Flügeln und Körpern der Tiere abstrahiert und in Reihungen, Spiegelungen, Drehungen in Szene setzt. Da wollen Kreative „weiterspinnen“ und Belen Mena trennt sich (schweren Herzens) von ihren Mustern, brennt sie auf CD und lässt sie fliegen. In Mac und PC und ins Herz der Designszene. Eine visuelle Party mit kreativen Höhenflügen.
Whilst her friends are still enjoying a boisterous pachanga (party) Ecuadorean designer Belen Mena is drawn by the breaking dawn to leave Quito and take the ruta verde into the rainforest where, in the still of the night, she observes moths: those creatures that flutter about our streetlamps, menaced by fly swatters and prejudice and at first glance nondescript.
Carefully she plucks the sleeping creatures from leaves. Places them gently on a contrasting background. And photographs them. She collects these portraits obsessively and distils from them patterns – made by nature.
Whilst European moth researchers discover species in Belen’s photos which have never before been seen designers are more instantly impressed by the creative potential of the abstract patterns that Belen derives from moths’wings and bodies, which she further elaborates as series or by rotating or mirror imaging them.Which sets creative minds a-buzz with ideas for more ... And so Belen Mena (with a heavy heart) toasts her moths on CD and lets them fly via Mac and PC to the heart of the design scene – a visual feast with sublime flights of fancy.
© JAM Publications 2007
Carefully she plucks the sleeping creatures from leaves. Places them gently on a contrasting background. And photographs them. She collects these portraits obsessively and distils from them patterns – made by nature.
Whilst European moth researchers discover species in Belen’s photos which have never before been seen designers are more instantly impressed by the creative potential of the abstract patterns that Belen derives from moths’wings and bodies, which she further elaborates as series or by rotating or mirror imaging them.Which sets creative minds a-buzz with ideas for more ... And so Belen Mena (with a heavy heart) toasts her moths on CD and lets them fly via Mac and PC to the heart of the design scene – a visual feast with sublime flights of fancy.
© JAM Publications 2007
