Commissioned by the – MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin as a permanent installation, the work consists of five tapestries woven with Moretta wool on a mechanical loom and incorporating washi paper, recycled plastic, and cellulose sheets, that translate the drawing Paradossi dell’abbondanza #54 (Il Rituale del Serpente) (Paradoxes of Plenty #54 [Serpent Ritual]) into weaving. Like yarns from different places and periods, the images here become the warp and weft of a narrative weave where objects, stylistic features, and artifacts from museum collections open up to new interpretive possibilities free from the spatiotemporal classification of Western art and museum history. These tapestries portray many of the stories related to capitalist development in the textile industry, starting with the invention of the mechanical loom in 1785, which revolutionized production systems but also affected the exploitation of women’s labor.
Serpent Ritual
With Giovanni Bonotto, A Collection
2023
Five tapestries, Moretta wool, washi paper, recycled plastic, one tapestry 570 x 140 cm, two tapestries 400 x 140 cm, two tapestries 200 x 140 cm, environmental dimensions. Installation view MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin. Photo by Emilia De Leonardis, Mariano Dallago. Permanent collection MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin
The work Serpent Ritual was commissioned by MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin as part of a year-long residency project curated by Davide Quadrio
