English Press Galleria Giorgio Persano, Torino
Anywhere out of the world
Baudelaire: ''Il me semble que je serai toujours bien la, ou je ne suis pas.''
In other words: It seems to me that I will always be happy
in the place where I am not. Or more bluntly: Wherever I am not is the
place where I am myself. Or else, taking the bull by the horns,
Anywhere out of the world.
Paul Auster, City of Glass, New York Trilogy.
In her art, Luisa Rabbia explores the perception of the body as border between the outside and the inside world of an individual:the relationship between a human and his environment, including his spiritual journey, his thoughts, memory and the passing of time.
Anywhere out of the world narrates states of precariousness and fragility.The artist works with various materials, though she prefers those that best narrate the passage of time, the crumbling of things and their disintegration. "I like to consider time itself a material," Luisa Rabbia says, "the main material that everything else may relate to."
In her exhibition for the Galleria Giorgio Persano in Turin, Italy, the leading role is played by fabrics. Cloths often have their own history. They are created in one place and finish up in another, gathering energies from the different places on their journey. They are there when we cover, protect and, to a certain extent, hide ourselves.The fabrics come alive thanks to the myriad of forms they can take, transforming themselves into mountains, lakes, streams, seemingly breathing. In Luisa' Rabbias drawings, patterns mirror the world, while the forms the textiles take create not only an outside world, but also hide an inside, which remains an enigma to the viewer.
A face with closed eyes might suggest to us that the individual is resting, but who knows what is going on inside? What determines being present? What happens in an abandoned body next to us?
"I am attracted to the fine line between logic and madness, to how personal obsessions can construct a situation that is only real in our thoughts", says Luisa Rabbia. "The drawing gives life to the thought, expressed in the dialogue between formal construction of the work and the spark of creativity."
To the artist, it is important to leave the mystery of the mind intact, to leave that hidden universe alive. This mystery upsets certainty and the possibility of judging. Outside, there is a confusing world of patterns. But also the silence inside makes a lot of noise.