NIGHTS I HAVE INSIDE
(eye training)
Every night gives our eyes a different color, and each journey leaves behind a unique, singular story.
Starting from the study of the Egyptian goddess Nut’s iconography, the work consists of multiple monotype and drypoint prints. Each of them belongs to a collection of images, colors and evocations gathered during a trip to the Douro Valley, made in 2018 by the two artists. The collaboration between them is a dialogue of instantaneous graphic marks and shared memories. The installation is conceived as a collection of visual notes, a decomposed travel notebook where the artists have shared memories, feelings and visual suggestions.
It is structured according to a simplified diagram of Nut’s iconography: usually represented naked with her arms and feet resting on the ground, her body covered with stars, being the symbol of the celestial vault. According to the myth, during the day, the heavenly bodies such as the sun and moon, would make their way across her body; then, at dusk, they would be swallowed, pass through her belly during the night, and be reborn at dawn.
The colorist research moves from the darkness of the night to the light of dawn and morning. Whilst the dark uniforms the vision, the light enables the differentiated and detailed vision of the marks. Not surprisingly, the light is the fundamental element that allows to see the engravings in the rocks of the prehistoric rock-art sites of the Coa Valley.
It is necessary to train our eyes in order to be able to see in their entirety the images of the rock engravings: similarly, the images composing the installation require some time necessary for a visual training.
At the end the observer will be able to go beyond a simple overview, discovering the hidden details behind this story.
The artwork seems a sample of different blues, collected over the seven days spent by the artists under the sky of the Douro region.
Installation, monotype, drypoint on paper and fabric, variable dimensions, 2019.
“As a Mother-Night, her star-studded body occupies the sky, with her legs and arms reaching the ground beneath her. At sunset she makes the sun disappear, and every morning she gives him birth again. She embraces all things. It is the unconscious from which all images arise.”