Maddalena Ambrosio
dal 10/10/2011 al 24/11/2011
Segnalato da
10/10/2011
Maddalena Ambrosio
Maddox Arts, London
Throughout "Zero Point", Ambrosio points towards an ominous future where the natural world has reclaimed the earth from a society that has lost its way.
“What the caterpillar calls the end, the world calls a butterfly.”
-Lao Tze
Maddox Arts is pleased to announce Maddalena Ambrosio’s ‘Zero Point’. The exhibition is
comprised of installation, sculptures and digital prints and marks Ambrosio’s first London solo
show since 2007. The Neapolitan artist has exhibited throughout Italy and internationally for over
a decade.
Throughout ‘Zero Point’, Ambrosio points towards an ominous future where the natural world
has reclaimed the earth from a society that has lost its way. Her response to the vision of this
uncertain world is not one of trepidation, but rather, to be seen as a cause for celebration of
natural beauty and as an opportunity to return to an age of harmony.
Through sculptural works
st
the artist appropriates icons of 21 century ephemera reimagining them in terra cotta. By
framing these ubiquitous objects against such a timeless medium she is able to cast them in an
otherworldly light revealing their inherent beauty and essential quiddity- rendering the familiar,
arcane and the mundane, extraordinary. Video game controllers, household-cleaning products
and digital cameras all become fossilised, artefacts-in-waiting for future generations. ‘Zero Point’
urges the viewer to acknowledge the transience of the material world and the need to readdress
our relationship with it.
In ‘Last Supper’, the artist delineates Da Vinci’s masterpiece to its constituent elements via digital
mapping processes that drain the work of its painterly qualities leaving us a spectral impression
that is at once familiar and alien. We are presented with a skeletal image of the iconic painting,
the bones of its composition viewable and the genetics of its form revealed.
The doctrinal notion
of Christian rebirth is reinterpreted into a digital era where the fundamentals of reality are
expressed though computerized geometry and infinity is expressible through aesthetic-
mathematical formulas. Echoes of the Italian Renaissance reverberate throughout ‘Zero Point’
as comparisons are drawn between our parallel epochs and their various disparities.
‘Bread’ utilizes a tower of interlocking baguette flutes that climb the height of the gallery before
attempting to sprout through the gallery ceiling. Mirroring the double helix of genetic science,
‘Bread’ demonstrates Man’s irrepressible urge to progress, and evinces the destructive tendency
of unfettered consumption. The broken communion bread is a further reminder of the Christian
ritual of the Eucharist and the use of bread, like that of terra cotta, evokes a time when the
senses were better attuned to nature.
Image: Maddalena Ambrosio - Untitled (Joystick), 2011
Preview: Tuesday 11th October 6.00-8.30
Maddox Arts
52 Brook’s Mews - London
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Friday: 11am - 7pm
Saturday - 12pm - 6pm
Or by appointment
Free admission