Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Fierce Maternity

Kelly Gellatly examines the celebrated artist’s childlike sense of curiosity and wonder that Maria Fernanda Cardoso somehow manages to ground in an exhaustive research process encompassing the disciplines of science, history, literature and philosophy.

By Kelly Gellatly

“I like tough nature. I like tough plants. So I appreciate these lifeforms that have adapted to floods, to fires, to drought. I find that curiosity, it’s very humbling, because you assume you don’t know. It’s not imposing but asking.”

Despite the almost childlike sense of curiosity and wonder that Maria Fernanda Cardoso has brought to her work across her decades’ long career, her practice is grounded in an exhaustive research process this encompasses the disciplines of science, history, literature and philosophy, and the close, often microscopic observation of her chosen source material. Along the way, what started as a spark transforms from interest into overwhelming obsession, with the artist feeling she needs to know absolutely everything about her subject before she can, through her art, make of it something new. In the case of The Museum of Copulatory Organs (2008-2012) for example, Cardoso undertook a PhD at the University of Sydney so that her interest in the reproductive organs of microscopic creatures would be taken seriously by the scientists who later became her collaborators. This expansive project, which was exhibited in the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, saw the creation of a collection of scientific models of the penises of tiny animals (primarily insects) for a hypothetical museum. In creating objects of fascination and beauty from a reality invisible to the naked eye, Cardoso employed techniques ranging from glass blowing to 3D computer modelling and electronic microscopic scanning. Her desire, in this and other works, is to encourage her audience to focus, so that we can learn from and connect to the natural world. The need to create an emotional reaction is deeply embedded in her practice. Cardoso said,

Materials in Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s studio, 2023

Photo: Jillian Nalty

I want to show how beautiful, fascinating, complex and rich our world is. And hopefully that bond gets communicated. Rather than complain about how we’re damaging, depleting, I want to say, ‘Just stop, look, admire, connect and value.’

Regardless of subject matter, Cardoso’s practice is grounded in making, with the shape, feel and manipulation of the materials in her hands ultimately determining what is done with them. Whether working with sheep’s wool (Sheep [2002]), dead animals (frogs, starfish, seahorses, butterfly wings) or as she is currently with gumnuts, pattern making remains a driving force, with the artist’s strong sense of geometry both referencing and replicating this phenomenon in the natural world. Cardoso’s work with animals and natural materials also makes it impossible for her audience to ignore the natural cycle of life and death. As she observed of her early work:

“We tend not to talk about things that are difficult or uncomfortable, like death, or sex. I lived through one of the most violent and dangerous eras in Columbian history. We were confronted with death, with terrorism, on a daily basis. So I think it was a process of grieving, and representing death, and being able to look at it, face it, and talk about it.”

While similarly connected to life cycles in the natural world, Cardoso’s work in Fierce Maternity references the more nurturing space of the maternal, where the gumnut is both the source, keeper and protector of the eucalyptus’s seeds, and effectively serves as the storehouse for its future life. Now having spent extended periods of time with this woody, tough, mesmerising material, Cardoso also feels, as a woman just turned 60 that the physical structure and reproductive role of the gumnut also powerfully relates to ageing. Cardoso’s fascination and love of the diverse forms and beauty of the gumnut began during an artist camp and workshop project in Central Australia in 2008-09 that she undertook with Indigenous women artists from the Tjampi Desert Weavers. It was here that she first gathered a collection of gumnuts with the women’s permission. Since the time of her pinned gumnut work in the resulting exhibition, KURU ALALA Eyes Open: Tjampi Desert Weavers, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Alison Clouson (2009), Cardoso has been ‘addicted’ to working in this material, and now collects gumnuts en masse, as well as sourcing them from licenced seed suppliers.

Materials in Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s studio, 2023

Photo: Jillian Nalty

For Cardoso, the gumnut is an ideal natural form through which to demonstrate her interest in reproductive morphologies, taxonomy, bio-geometry and pattern making, but with more than 700 different species of eucalyptus in Australia–each with its own fruit–the extraordinary variations of scale, shape and design across this resilient species also serve as an elegant visualisation of biodiversity. Paying homage to the artistry of nature, Cardoso describes the gumnut as a “ready-made” – an exquisite wooden form that would take enormous time, effort and skill to carve, yet it is made from within, with nature itself as the creator.

“To me, the eucalyptus is an artist, and gumnuts are its artworks. … As a trained sculptor, I can only dream of carving with such skill, to produce these perfectly shaped wooden sculptures. The eucalyptus tree does it naturally, after practising for over 100 million years to get these shapes right.”

In Cardoso’s hands the meditative yet labour-intensive act of aggregating the gumnuts transforms them into “the perfect shape” of a sphere that is at once self-supporting and incredibly strong. “I find that metaphor really powerful for anything we do in life as a collective effort” she says. “I find that really magical.”