Fuga (Tenda Series)
Found plastic beaded curtain, altered and re-assembled to create a braid measuring 4 meters long (160"). (Courtesy Cade Tompkins Projects). This braid formed the basis for a series of photographs locating the braid in several settings to create a narrative sequence evoking the myth of Rapunzel, a fire escape ladder, or a suicide noose. Shown here suspended from a second-story balcony, descending into a courtyard of the abandoned aristocratic palazzo illustrated in the earlier work Fata Morgana/Mondo Nuovo, Tusa, Sicily, 2021. Fuga means flight: as in to flee, escape. This braid formed the basis for a series of photographs locating the braid in several settings to create a narrative sequence. Shown here suspended from a second-story balcony, descending into a courtyard of the abandoned aristocratic palazzo illustrated in the earlier work Fata Morgana/Mondo Nuovo, Tusa, Sicily, 2021. Again dealing with a found object - a plastic doorway curtain, Fuga evokes several things at once: a braid of hair like the story of Rapunzel, a rope ladder, a noose, or a gigantic serpent ready to constrict. These things hint at danger and desperation, and represent an escape strategy. Things to flee: an oppressive domestic or social context by sneaking away; a fire (like the wildfires that encroach on the territory, set intentionally by local mafia to claim land or to destroy and intimidate rivals), or to die by suicide by hanging (the prevalent method among women in the town).
Fuga is part of the series of works I call the "Tenda" series, which includes: Lasciami stare/Stare con me, Redux, Fuga and Halo(Nimbus): These pieces address dualistic ideas of the exterior and interior, community and isolation, privacy and surveillance, longing and escapism, and play on the theatrical scrim-like nature of discarded found objects such as curtains and sheets that were salvaged and repurposed in the following manners.