Excerpt of the catalogue presentation of Sleep out written by Gloria Vallese, historian of art and curator of CREAM ON MADNESS.
Sleep out (2008) consists of a series of iron “beds” painted white, similar in their structure, but almost all different from each other. In their seriality and in some other features, they evoke the institutional dormitories as found in military barracks and in hospitals, particularly psychiatric hospitals.
The "beds" are placed outdoors, in the idyllic peace of the garden of San Servolo, a step away from the windows which, through the boundary wall, look in the distance Venice and the poignant beauty of other corners of the lagoon, underlining a concept of freedom denied, an unnatural condition of sweetness and rest which involves separation and pain.
Inspired by archival images and objects relating to the history of madness, including those kept in the small museum of madness of the island, the bed/cage is also seen here as a container (of stories, memory, loss, pain, madness. ..). Some items (dolls, photos, blankets, pillows, a glass) are kept within them: as often the beds, as a reaction to the depersonalization of institutional places, become for their tenants a miniature house that harbors, under the pillow, under the mattress, between the folds of the sheets, fragments of that emotional and personal world from which the patient/convict/ soldier is separated.
Phrases embroidered, or stubbornly carved, allude to another theme: the suspended, idle time of detention and illness.
Other hints, like shirts which tie up around the body, evoke the idea of containment, without becoming a too direct quotation.
With Sleep out, on-site-work that tries to listen to what a place has to say with its history, Cristina Treppo carries on her ongoing meditation on an object like the bed, common and utilitarian but very rich in symbolic content. Talamo rosso (2005), a work with which in 2006 the artist was included among the finalists of the first edition of the International Prize Arnaldo Pomodoro for the young sculpture, is an installation composed of a scarlet double bed, mattress and pillows resting on very frail stacks of drinking glasses, an icastic representation of the delicate emotional balance of our time. Secrets and Lies, site-specific work in front of the Hungaria Hotel at Venice Lido created in 2006 for Open 9, was a fragile alcove of white lace placed incongruously under the open sky, in open relationships with the promises of the romantic old majolica facade of the hotel. Even this case, as in Sleep Out, an intimate structure like the bed had been deprived of the protection of the walls, underscoring the vulnerability of its tenants.
With a contribution entirely original and personal, Cristina Treppo adds to the number of women artists who are marking in our age a turning point to the language of sculpture, permeating it with a new attention to emotional values and materials and practices typically feminine: just a few examples, particularly near to Cristina’s world, are Louise Bourgeois with her tragic tissue "dolls", Kim-Soo-Ja with her needle and thread, Petah Coyne with her clusters of soft materials which entangle little souvenirs and small objects of everyday life.
The series of "caged beds" presented in San Servolo are only a part of Sleep Out, a complex project in progess which includes in its complete form a larger number of elements, and a series of photographs taken in the impressive abandoned interior of the former Centre for Mental Health of Udine (Italy).
The "beds" are placed outdoors, in the idyllic peace of the garden of San Servolo, a step away from the windows which, through the boundary wall, look in the distance Venice and the poignant beauty of other corners of the lagoon, underlining a concept of freedom denied, an unnatural condition of sweetness and rest which involves separation and pain.
Inspired by archival images and objects relating to the history of madness, including those kept in the small museum of madness of the island, the bed/cage is also seen here as a container (of stories, memory, loss, pain, madness. ..). Some items (dolls, photos, blankets, pillows, a glass) are kept within them: as often the beds, as a reaction to the depersonalization of institutional places, become for their tenants a miniature house that harbors, under the pillow, under the mattress, between the folds of the sheets, fragments of that emotional and personal world from which the patient/convict/ soldier is separated.
Phrases embroidered, or stubbornly carved, allude to another theme: the suspended, idle time of detention and illness.
Other hints, like shirts which tie up around the body, evoke the idea of containment, without becoming a too direct quotation.
With Sleep out, on-site-work that tries to listen to what a place has to say with its history, Cristina Treppo carries on her ongoing meditation on an object like the bed, common and utilitarian but very rich in symbolic content. Talamo rosso (2005), a work with which in 2006 the artist was included among the finalists of the first edition of the International Prize Arnaldo Pomodoro for the young sculpture, is an installation composed of a scarlet double bed, mattress and pillows resting on very frail stacks of drinking glasses, an icastic representation of the delicate emotional balance of our time. Secrets and Lies, site-specific work in front of the Hungaria Hotel at Venice Lido created in 2006 for Open 9, was a fragile alcove of white lace placed incongruously under the open sky, in open relationships with the promises of the romantic old majolica facade of the hotel. Even this case, as in Sleep Out, an intimate structure like the bed had been deprived of the protection of the walls, underscoring the vulnerability of its tenants.
With a contribution entirely original and personal, Cristina Treppo adds to the number of women artists who are marking in our age a turning point to the language of sculpture, permeating it with a new attention to emotional values and materials and practices typically feminine: just a few examples, particularly near to Cristina’s world, are Louise Bourgeois with her tragic tissue "dolls", Kim-Soo-Ja with her needle and thread, Petah Coyne with her clusters of soft materials which entangle little souvenirs and small objects of everyday life.
The series of "caged beds" presented in San Servolo are only a part of Sleep Out, a complex project in progess which includes in its complete form a larger number of elements, and a series of photographs taken in the impressive abandoned interior of the former Centre for Mental Health of Udine (Italy).
Sleep Out
Installation (iron, paint, net,
fabric, polyurethane, plaster,
resin, wire, fluorescent lamps,
found objects)
Variable size
2008
1 commento:
wuauu muy bueno.. saludos y besos elisa
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