Debbie Lawson’s sculptures, where 3D flora and fauna surreally spring from the intricate patterns of Persian rugs, draw out a buried dream life of objects. Yet they do so in a way that cannily disrupts and subverts the fantasies. ArtLego artist Lawson is known for her enchanting works, reinterpreting domestic interiors interconnected with natural elements. Her art is a hybrid, in which different visual codes coincide: the mimesis of nature overlaps a “furnishing philosophy”, eclectic, unusual and with unexpected results. According to the theory that already Edgar Allan Poe quoted in the essay “Philosophy of Furniture” in 1840, the act of furnishing a home can be understood as the conquest of space, directly connected with the experience of life of its owner. Lawson´s use of Persian carpets in her sculptures and installation works thus conjures fantastic stories of faraway, exotic places. Items of everyday furniture come alive by creating new living reality that receive external nature.
Three of her works: Fox and Ivy, (detail on photo) Bear and Stag are now to be seen in the group show Eccentric Spaces, at Riccardo Costantini Contemporary in Torino. In addition to Lawson, Caroline Corbasson, Dana Levy, Noa Pane and Anila Rubiku, displays works in the exhibition .
The main theme of the exhibition is the concept of space as one of the essential categories for the perception of the world. The idea of the project starts with a reflection on the text “Perspective as symbolic form” (1927) by Erwin Panofsky. In his text the author shows how each cultural epoch has developed its own way of representing space, defined as a visible ‘symbolic form’, proper to that particular culture.
The curators, EIena Inchingolo and Paola Stroppiana, offers a careful selection of artists and media; video installation, sculpture and drawing. The concept of space that forms the objects is diverse and all encompassing, starting from the original meaning of the word; an available place for objects. By an association of ideas, and by a metaphorical shift of meaning, the exhibition concept also includes the possibility for space to become a relational, anthropological, architectural, astronomical, poetic, naturalistic place. The objects pose numerous reflections on reality: the questions on the nature of things, the scientific classification of space and objects, a constantly evolving world of information that sets ever new goals for knowledge and exchange.
The exhibition is open 16 February – 01. April. Tuesday to Saturday 11-19.30.
Via Giolitti 51, Torino
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