In the forests of Maine 2003
Graphite, charcoal and pigments on paper and wall, plexiglass, acrylic, fresco painting on wood. Dimension variable.
Installation view: Wooster Art Space, New York.
Simonetta Moro expands upon the 18th century ‘Carceri’ (Italian for prisons) renderings of Piranesi. She pricks thousands of dots into large sheets of glassine paper, and then lightly pounds powdered graphite through those tiny holes onto the wall, a literal adaptation of the traditional process for transferring cartoons onto a surface in preparation for fresco. Through dense layers of grisaille overlays, she represents dungeons both as places to take refuge in and escape from, luring the viewer into a mysterious and secret world.
Joyce Kozloff, curator of Inside-out at Wooster Art Space, New York City, December 2003 - January 2004.
This series of works were developed during my residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, in the summer 2003. The drawings on display were initially meant to be preparations for fresco paintings, and they explicitly refer to some of Giovan Battista Piranesi's "Carceri d’invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons).