THE BODY CAGE Print

THE BODY CAGE – 80 x 40 x 23 – 8,6 kg – clay , iron , wood , cork Valeria Ferrari's exhibition is an art exhibition that wants to make each of us reflect that the female condition and her discomfort is not only a physical barrier but also psychological, a concept that joins as a hymn to beauty and a praise to the generating force of the woman. The feminine sinuosity, which has always been represented in eastern and western iconography, is shown off and made its way up to our century thanks to an artist like Valeria. Taking up the theme of Venus from primitive traditions, acting as an archaeologist in search of the remnants and the ancient civilizations. The artist brings out from ancient doors and objects used in everyday use, the languid force of women, a symbol of great beauty. In the two triptychs “Selfie” and “The Echo ofSilence” (the latter winner of the Critics' Award "Michelangelo Buonarotti" in 2017 in Versilia) she expresses the total belonging to the material element of the door, which stands as a representative support for the artist; The latter, with the help of plaster, cement and oil, configures three women, silhouettes imbued not only with an aesthetic value but also with a capacity to tell the viewer the condition of the "woman-object", placed there in the window, ready to be scrutinized, marked, looked at and if we want to say "raped" even with a single glance. The use of materials such as oil and plaster explain the philosophy pursued by the artist of non-dual painting, where oil with a dark colour (easily associated with the gold of contemporary society) contrasts with the purity of plaster. Graphite, polyurethane foam and wood are other elements used by the artist to represent the female figure. The assemblage of these material forces, together with Valeria's great talent and extreme sensitivity, are the perfect blend to best express the uneasiness of women and at the same time the erotic and primordial charge of the divinities. The reuse of raw materials, is fully configured in the works placed in this exhibition and it is visible especially looking at the work Gea, considered in Greek-Roman mythology the divinity of the Earth and in my opinion a clear testimony of the one who can save the beauty. A Gea that sensually emerges with ease from the wooden edge of an ancient door, with prosperous hips, worthy of a perfect parent and breasts flourishing, perfect nurse with a face shaped and devoid of any feature somatic. The works created by the artist not only have as their subject the figure of the woman, but there are also multi-material sculptures with assemblages of some fragments taken from the Flora, a bit like in the '50s did Robert Rauschenberg with his Combine.1] Combination of natural finds is The Roots' Beauty, a clear example of the artist's talent to look beyond the simple root of prickly pear, ennobling it as a work of art, or as The Body Cage, a small multi-material installation composed of two frames placed frontally and iron gratings, raw elements that we perceive as angular and rough, which contrast with the softness of the small amorphous sculpture of white colour. A woman caged both by her body, cut by her upper and lower limbs, and by the very cage that has been placed around her. An extreme melancholy of what those who live a malaise linked to the rejection by society, abandoned and dispersed in the tangle of the system, which gives each person the pre-packaged rules to follow in order to be considered as such. "Our society, which is constantly and rapidly evolving, is increasingly pressing on the pure and mere appearance of the physical, leaving aside and commercializing instead the deepest part of the human being: the soul". These are Valeria's words, words that strike for their strong realism and that tell of a frenetic society, of consumerism, of capitalism, attentive to the ephemeral and consequently to the most extravagant fashions of the moment and to the pursuit of the most winking selfie. A generation that is above all destroying what is perhaps the most silent and succulent woman, MOTHER EARTH.