the alebrijes are coming!
Perhaps you have already seen them, the alebrijes, monsters from the dreams, los monstruos de los sueños. "Sometime in the 1930s, when he was in his thirties, Pedro Linares fell ill with a high fever, which caused him to hallucinate. In these feverish dreams, he was in a forest with rocks and clouds, many of which turned into wild, unnaturally colored creatures, which frequently features wings, horns, tails, fierce teeth and bulgy eyes. While seeing the creatures, he heard a crowd of voices which repeated the nonsensical word “alebrije.” After he recovered, he began to create the creatures he saw using papier-mâché and cardboard." ...more on wikipedia.org
Soon after, the alebrijes were added to the lexicon of Mexican crafts by artisans in Oaxaca. No two alebrijes are exactly alike! Any kind of creature, real or imagined, may become hybridized and brightly-coloured alebrijes. The alebrijes are chimerae and despite the psychedelic colours of their painted hides, long spines & spurs & spikes, and surreal forms, they are not very photogenic. It is better to visit Oaxaca to see the alebrijes in their native habitat. Nonetheless, here is a parade of "Alebrijes,"escaped from dreamland:
- google image search: alebrijes
- Alebrijes on FlickrHiveMind
-a fine gallery of strange beasties at MexicoLindo
x-posted to www.cloudpad.org