ELISABETH MEDBØE
alias Bela Tamuly
Silk embroidery on Eri silk.Detail.Without the birds life will never be the same. Full size 100 x 200 cm, 2026
We mirror ourselves in birds is an ongoing project, with new works and texts to come.
Two works in this project are shown for the time being at PERSONAL STRUCTURES, Confluences.
Venice 9.5 - 22.11 2026
The text in the catalogue:
We mirror ourselves in birds. In this project Elisabeth Medbøe reflects on how Humanity has evolved in coexistence with birds. Observations of them have inspired stories and symbols; motifs have been shaped not only to depict nature, but also to express the human search for insight. Birds serves as expressions of our existence, our yearning for transcendence and perceptions of life and death. Yet today, our way of living threatens the very existence of birds, prompting new reflections on our bond with nature and human sensitivities.
Throughout her artistic practice, birds have held an important place; the joy of observing them, and in the countless tales of birds found in folklore and mythology.
Elisabeth Medbøe is presenting two works: The Eagle and Without the Birds, Life Will Never Be the Same. Both pieces are conceptual in nature, grounded in an ongoing process that intertwines emotional response, reflection, and time.
Her embroidery continues for as long as her mental and emotional state remains charged by the motif and the thoughts it provokes. Even then, the process is never truly complete. The act of stitching becomes a durational dialogue with the longing for nature and its birds, alongside a sense of detachment imposed by urban life. Working from photographic images of the eagle and the owl, she responds to what they express. The Eagle is depicted with one wing severed by a wind turbine — a stark confrontation between nature and the machinery of human progress. The eagle’s gaze affected her profoundly. A similar emotional charge is found in her rendering of the owl, whose piercing sharpness of vision evokes watchfulness and silent witness.
Hand embroidery is a slow process and creates space for contemplation. In this sense her practice stands as a quiet act of resistance against mass production, overconsumption, and the accelerating pace of contemporary life, a speed that the natural world can neither sustain nor regenerate from.
Various silks are selected as materials because their fibres provide a range of textures for visual expression and silk is reared by small holding farmers in some Asian countries.
