foil stamping, recycled textile fiber, wool threads | fabric sponsored by Nazena | 130 x 76 x 7 cm | 2022
CAN YOU UNDERSTAND?
Nails and fabric, two materials literally of opposite nature, penetrate each other; seemingly, the softness of the fiber can offer no resistance, but in the end, the nail gets stuck in it and outlines a writing, like skin marked by the ink of a tattoo. The phrase comes from David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” and encapsulates an ancestral fear: remaining
unexpressed, latent. An intimate fear that echoes death in daily life. In contrast, the title of the work, “Can You Understand?,” picks up the quote inscribed on the board; it is the immediately following fragment that, in an interlocutory manner, reestablishes the connection with the other, the dialogue, after delving deep within oneself. “I’m so scared of dying without ever truly being seen. Do you understand?”
