Stories of Nymphs

Venerable sisters, their heads covered with white flour, three girls are flapping, suspended in a metaphysical space, and they are eating honey. That is what we see contemplating Laura’s works: light-coloured plastic figures, with dotted but soft texture, pointed breasts, alerted and opened eyes, their noses and mouths are just outlined. They are usually three, often side by side with each other. The figures create an emotional suspense at the first glance. The classical and mythological background which they belong to is clear: these figures may be called “Nymphs, Grazie, Veneri, Muse, Sirens”. All these mythological figures are known to have the opportunity to be saviours and, at the same time, to be a devastating power. The Nymphs have been rarely named among the deities, because of their ambivalent figure which was opposed to the classic figure of the Deity. Therefore, Nymphs’ metaphysics virtue was not recognized by the Olympian pantheon. The beauty describing the Nymphs has not to be interpreted with the contemporary conception of beauty that is related to the shape; their beauty belongs to the classical notion of inner perfection: “form is the substance.” Observing Laura’s work, it is possible to notice a certain similarity with the “Veneri di Milo”: both artworks are without arms, their modelling is made with delicate chiaroscuro charm which is expressed by the contrast between the smooth flesh- naked bodies and the vibrating lights into the hair. Indeed Venere, the goddess of beauty and love is, in its essence, all the elements of fertility, beauty and femininity. As the “Grazie” of Antonio Canova, Nymphs are engaged in a silent dialogue of beauty and Nature; Nymphs are the manifestation of Nature’s harmony, which declares itself through simplicity and essentiality of forms. The presence of the number “three” alludes to the numerical representation of perfection. These figures are an intermediary of ancestral images which, through their beauty, tell us about wisdom that is inherent in things. Laura’s “Grazie” have their eyes wide opened to the world, as a constant vigilance on what takes place. Sometimes, Laura’s “Grazie” wear a curious pointed cap on their head, like a crown that gives them power. Often who wears a particular hat can arouse a feeling of admiration or fear and, unconsciously, we can grant him authority or a particular ascendant. As element, the hat is a symbol of the unconscious and it gives a mysterious look to the wearer. The hat is often an element that is connected to the change and to the transcendence from the material world to the world of ideas. The hat might also be a “phallic symbol” which equates woman and man. The “half-woman, half-horse” anthropomorphic female sculptures are like Valkyries who, overflowing cosmic energy, are known for bringing news, announcing the existence of other dimensions, and for conducting the dead souls of heroes to paradise. At this point we can ask ourselves if we are facing with a reassuring “Grazie” or with “Nymphs” that, through their beauty, lead man to a deep destructive madness.

Accumulations- Pandora’s Box

High heels shoes on a plate, as an offering and a danger. Ambivalent atmosphere; is it an offer or a provocation? The woman is a goddess and she is part of a tragedy. Nowadays, the role of women emerges through the exasperation of shapes and colours, as a sweet poison; it shows and it offers. The contradictions and changes that it has undergone, occur and give us some points for reflection. In the collective imaginary, the woman is always busy preparing food for her husband and children; so, not surprisingly, Laura puts his works on a dish which, however, is not offering food, but the objects associated with femininity, such as high heeled shoes, bottles or babies. These artworks disrupt the old concept of “woman”, in order to revalue its deep, dangerous and sometimes “phallic” meaning of femininity. Breaking the idea of ??”women as objects”, the accumulations set free an idea of woman full of meaning, a mysterious woman who is able to save the world. Also on a tray, Laura’s “Hulls” seem almost a body which is breaking and opening his status of “object” and, as the Pandora’s box, they release all their ghosts, both positive and negative. The “fragments” or “breaks” have sharp edges. They often change the viewer’s tranquillity into an attitude of defence. The “fragments” communicate their thirst for revenge and the urgency to break schemes and shout the truth. Often, the breaks are a sign of crisis, change, destruction, and they relate to death. These sculptures, seen as “breaks”, are an original concept that appears as a non-sense of the sculpture itself. Therefore, Laura’s artworks are a reflection on the well-established man-made things, as the conventional kitch which shapes life. Laura breaks these stereotypes with extreme elegance and transforms them into sculptural work. In spite of these meanings, “the break” also refers to the rebirth, then hope. This is why it is worth living “The Sacrifice – Break” to finally reach the rebirth.

Totem

Vertical accumulations of shapes, approaching the tribal art, the art of the spirit, the Totems are connected to the ground and therefore they related to concrete aspects of life, that are life, fertility and death. Laura’s Totems seem to have affinities with those of Louise Bourgeois;  the energy given off by the woman fertility links the two artists as both deal with these themes. The Totems emerge from the horizontal surface of the Earth as symbolic figures, as they were human presences designed for protecting against witchcraft and / or staving off loneliness.

Alessia Francescato