“I’m more interested in seeing what the material tells me than in imposing my will on it”
John Chamberlain, sculptor
The coconut palm in Eastern Africa develops a soft and tender fiber that wraps the early coconuts growing on the tree. When the growing cycle is over, with the help of the wind, the palm drops these fibers on the ground. The material is a natural thread, very soft, water resistant and extremely light.
At the beginning of 2017, while spending some months in Kenya, I started using this material together with other found and recycled materials I stumbled on the spot, such as the plastic of discarded flip flops.
I then decided to dye the fibers with local spices (saffron, dried tomato), to patchwork and sow them in order to create a skirt and other pieces of clothing.
While assembling the fibers I realised that what I was making was not a skirt but a human-like figure that came to have a size of 180 x 420 cm, weighting approximately 600 grams. When I left from Kenya I brought it back with a quantity of raw fibers to be worked out in the following months.
Back in Italy I discovered that a group of fellow artists were organising an exhibition at Fondazione Lac o Lemon in San Cesario, Italy, around the subject of fallen trees and entitled Omaggio ai Caduti. In fact, some months before, a number of trees in the park of the Fondazione were knocked down by the strong winds. I then proposed to include this crafted sculpture, that I named Creatura, in order to be finally returned to its initial vertical position.
Back in Rome, I started working at some of the spare fibers to create a new sculpture. What came out of this research was a circle, and the sculpture was therefore named Cerchio.
Documentation video below:
During those weeks I started studying the semiology of the Proto-Indo-European language theory as I'm interested in the morphology of language and its relationship with non verbal frameworks.
The starting point of this research of mine was through the study of sanskrit. The study had led to the project The Fire of 'Bu:, a sound poetry operetta performed with jazz singer Alice Ricciardi in 2017.
Getting acquainted to the research work of multi-language artist Zoltán Ludwig Kruse, I composed a set of sound poetry pieces roaming freely in the sound roots of few semiotic familities. The work, still in its process, comes under the title of GAR.
Short list of eferences for Proto-Indo-European language Theory:
Gimbutas, Marija, 1965. Bronze Age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe. The Hague/London: Mouton
Renfrew, A.C., 1987, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, London: Pimlico
Gamkrelidze, Tamaz, 1970, Anatolian languages and the problem of Indo-European migration to Asia Minor, Tokyo: Studies in General and Oriental Linguistics
Alinei, Mario, 2000, Origini delle lingue d'Europa. Vol. II: Continuità dal Mesolitico al Ferro nelle principali aree europee, Bologna: Il Mulino.
