A complimentary body of work to Ricardo Brey’s earlier Universe (2002—2006), Annex (2003—2016) originally began as an exploration of flight. Consisting of works on paper, sculptures, installations, and videos, the series primarily focuses on birds, but also features flying insects and plants, as well as angels. As the curator and writer Roel Arkestijn observes, “Completely in line with his previous work, flying is for Brey a mythic activity that is bound up with migration and existential questions about freedom and our origins. The Annex forces us to recall Brey’s sculptures on the theme of Icarus.” As part of Annex, Brey also produced a series of carved bird head sculptures made from balsa wood and clay, the Kouros. Combining observations on the natural world with myth, Brey draws parallels between the two, suggesting that attempts to categorize reality’s complexity ultimately results in the construction of scientific fictions.
