COMMISSION #9 – VALERIA CARRIERI

Valeria Carrieri's IUNO lives in a domestic environment and takes the forms of a pitcher and a small mirror made of papier-mâché.
The slightly tilted container, the main element of the installation, allows the liquid contained within to seep out, revealing its anthropomorphic characteristics: a human face, resembling a full moon, engages in a dialogue with its counterpart modelled on the curved surface of the pitcher, where two large eyes seem to evoke the decorations of ancient Greek and Etruscan wine cups. Despite being distinct, the two sculptures establish a relationship of interdependence that allows them to be interpreted both as autonomous elements and as parts of the same body, each associated with the other. It is noteworthy in this sense that the work, like other pieces of the series titled Autoritratto notturnocorresponds to a simulacrum of the artist, a representation that simultaneously aims to account for human multiplicity and complexity by resorting to hybridization with inorganic forms (those of objects) and a certain indeterminacy in facial features that aspires to gender neutrality.

By reproducing a household item associated with the domestic context, Brocca e Volto establishes a connection between autobiographical and domestic dimensions but also seems to pay homage to the theories of Ursula K. Le Guin and Barbara Johnson, who see the container not only as an equivalent of the human body but also as a tool of knowledge, foundational to primitive gathering activities as well as the sedimentation of wisdom and knowledge.

By reinterpreting everyday objects, Carrieri proceeds to their celebration and sacralization, overtly declared through the construction of a personal pantheon composed of plates, kitchen gloves, and hair combs featuring Naiads, sea monsters, and Ovidian metamorphoses.

Valeria Carrieri, Brocca e volto / Autoritratto notturno, 2023, painted papier-mâché

Text by Giulia Gaibisso

Photo credit: Antonio Arminio