The photographs and paintings in"O Colombia" feature strange-
looking gold birds and masks, all of which are fashioned after
pre-Columbian gold pieces now housed in the Gold Museum in
Bogota. The gold pieces are remnants of societies governed by
chiefs. Considered a sacred metal, gold once adorned political
leaders and was used in offerings to placate the gods. Gold
objects accompanied the dead to their tombs. The gold objects
pictured in these works are now museum pieces, remnants of the
lost civilizations which created them. They are tiny in size,
only a few inches in length. The paintings portray them as
large, demystified objects. They are sadly devoid of any
practical use. The flying bird holds no life in its eye; it
hovers like a blimp over a world unaware of its presence. The
teaching bird preaches to others who pay no attention to it, and
the racing bird competes with chickens in a race judged by a
mask of a coca-chewing man most probably incapable of clear
thinking.