regenerated nylon yarn derived from pre and post industrial waste, metal wire | fabric sponsored by Carvico | site specific installation, variable dimensions | 2024 installation view at Ivy Brown Gallery, New York, USA
ON OUR WAY
After the installation was completed, we immediately began exchanging thoughts about what it reminded us of; it was like a ribbon, both in the sky and in water, and why not, on earth as well. Schools of fish, paths, flocks of birds, murmuration—which is the particular movement flocks of starlings make when they fly in a coordinated, fluid, and dynamic formation, creating complex patterns in the sky. A voice that whispers as well; a song. Words like notes on a stave. A crown, a cloud, a ring, a nimbus, even a dance around something. Multiple aerial, aquatic, or terrestrial images, whether metaphorical or not, organic or not, come to mind when looking at the work. They stay all around us regardless of the subject that supports them; they reflect each other, and this is exactly the spirit of the Roots Series to which the installation belongs—a transformative power that connects different cultures and languages across space and time. With the Roots Series, we bridge language and cosmogony. Starting from a single linguistic element like a verbal root, we trace its evolution around the world and throughout history, and every word it generates provides a new way to understand the world in greater detail, adding perspectives to the global scenario.
In particular, All Around Us is an immersive installation that people can walk through, surrounded by about 900 words that reflect the ambiguous bond between justice and the sacred, which is deeply connected to the maintenance, loss, and recovery of the optimal state of man. For example, the root √Man is at the core of the word ‘mind,’ representing a neutral ground, and like a pendulum, it swings between ‘mania,’ the deterioration of measure and charged with inebriated excesses, and ‘mantica,’ the art of divination, which transcends rational faculties through the ability to understand and interpret worldly signs. Or √Keil, which gives birth to ‘hale,’ meaning in good health, ‘whole,’ meaning undivided or complete, and ‘holy.’ Or √Yew that, on one hand, gives us ‘Jus,’ meaning justice, and on the other hand, gives us ‘juventus,’ meaning youth, ‘yaoz,’ meaning life, and ‘java,’ meaning wheat, as a source of strength.
