There is something comforting and fascinating in big chunky knitted pieces - from rugs and blankets that may have a decorative or functional purpose to scarves and sweaters that protect our bodies from harsh winter conditions. From a distance Laura Renna's voluminous handmade knitted sculptures look therefore reassuring as something your grandmother may have done to wrap you up and keep you warm. Yet the pieces hide a secret: they are actually rough to the touch as they are made with metal-based materials such as stainless steel wool.
Born in San Pietro Vernotico, Brindisi, Italy, but working in Modena, Renna makes these sculptures following traditional techniques, while keeping firmly in her mind and heart the principles of the Arte Povera ("Poor Art" or "Impoverished Art") movement. In her woven and knitted sculptures Renna manipulates stainless steel wool and turns it into a modern tapestry.
Her sculptures such as "Trifolium" (2011), "Strascico" (2015; combining brass, copper and stainless steel wool) and "Helichrysum" (2015; a piece in which she juxtaposes brass wool and galvanized iron) evoke the power of nature, but also explore its darker sides.
Knotted and knitted, her masses of stainless steel wool hung on walls or arranged on floors reveal a strangely fascinating alchemical power: they represent a nature that has been corrupted and turned into something synthetic and surreal, but that still proves to be attracting and spellbinding.
Some of these pieces are currently showcased in the Project Room of Venice-based Gallery Marignana Arte (Rio Terà dei Catecumeni, Dorsoduro 141, until 28th October) as part of "Between Us" (until today Renna's works are also on display at the Marignana Arte booth at ArtVerona 2017).
The latter is a sort of coincise compendium of Renna's work so far, that includes her installations of leaves and photographic collages, though her best pieces remain her oversized woven abstract figures, half carpets and half three-dimensional geometries made of stainless steel wool.
These sculpture are indeed a celebration of manual ability in our modern digital times and they invite visitors to ponder about the possibilities of contaminating traditions with modern materials and create new and unexpected relations between different compositional elements.
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