portal for creative expression
At the moment Laura has a solo project called NEU MA that researches the body as an instrument and the breath as control. She says, ‘The main interest of this research is to connect the physical manifestations to new technologies, transforming the performer into a complex interactive tool.”
Anita and I made plans to create a book with the drawings using handcrafted book-binding methods. Today we work to complete this book. She shows me a bookbinding book which explains how to bind with bird feathers and other such things.
First, she creates an armour over her red overalls by peeling layer upon layer of two blocks of unbaked raw clay with a string of dental floss. Her face is covered entirely, her body enduring the process, her hands searching and shaking slightly.
Improvised gestural forms have a visible sense of spontaneity, balance, symmetry, and flow. They feel very different to self-conscious and perfected ones. The difference is difficult to describe but I think it is the same difference between a self-conscious actor compared with somebody acting with their attention outside of themselves. Drawn marks reveal a state of mind.
The Alma Zevi gallery sits in the centre and is currently presenting drawings by Berlin-born/London-based painter Frank Auerbach, for his first solo exhibition in Italy since he represented Great Britain in the 42nd Venice Biennale of 1986 – winning the prestigious Golden Lion prize.
The work that struck me hardest for was a fishing boat, which on April 18, 2015, more than 800 refugees died. The surprisingly small, brightly coloured yet distressed vessel was designed for a crew of 15 people. It was installed as an art exhibit by Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel and titled Barca Nostra (Our Boat).
As a civilization we have erased the cult of the creatrix, and denied women the role of cultural producers (…). The Capitalist system adds yet another layer of enslavement, with its absurd expectations of productivity, pink taxes, beauty and fashion industries, glass ceiling, gender gap, and in the US, a complete lack of free or affordable childcare, not to mention issues that arise from the economy of huge disparities and production towards destruction of humanitarian values and the environment.
I sometimes even try to make ‘bad’ drawings as a means to make myself think or behave ‘outside the box’ or to create new patterns of behaviour. Surprisingly often, ‘bad’ ideas and situations have turned out to be ‘good’ in one way or another. I feel that allowing imperfections to be not only visible but in focus allows us to consider the life, history, and value of the hand-made object.