This body of work is inspired by the idea of rest not as absence, but as an active practice of regeneration, and continues Bertaglia’s ongoing exploration of thresholds.
Prompted by a personal period of forced rest and reflection, Bertaglia investigates the threshold of consciousness itself: the moment in which stillness and transformation coincide and when something enters awareness. At the center of the exhibition — and marking a new direction in her practice — are three mid-sized canvases that introduce the figure of the bird. Traditionally, birds symbolize spirituality, the soul, and positive transformation — from renewal and new beginnings to resurrection. All themes that inspired Bertaglia to create this new series of works. Depicted in varying degrees of abstraction, the birds emerge from magmatic backgrounds of dense foliage and imagined fauna. They occupy an atmosphere that is both mysterious and charged. The new palette of deep greens, reds, and purples intensifies this sense of a liminal, unplaceable space — a world hovering on the edge of a threshold.