LA
FAVELLA DI COLORE
COLOURSPEAK
paper pulp work Tavistock Centre 2005
La Favella di Colore
(Colourspeak) is a new exhibition of paper pulp works by the
Italian artist, Irma Irsara at the Tavistock Centre, from 4
July to 15 September.
The
English version of the exhibition title, Colourspeak, forms
an interesting counterpoint to the Italian original, since it
conveys a subtly different meaning. The old Italian word ‘favella’
suggests a more lyrical kind of speech; and it also reflects
Irsara’s continuing interest in Dante’s Divine Comedy,
one of the core elements in her exhibition last year at Diorama,
which took as its theme the transmigration of souls. This time
it is colour, a formal aspect of the work which is also the
theme, but we know that it will incorporate many layers of interpretation,
like the three dimensional effect of Irsara’s paper pulp
technique. There is a sequence of colour ‘favellas’,
devised from a restricted palette, which speak to each other
and to us. One, for example, is the turquoise ‘favella’
which contains signs or symbols, like the debris or thoughts
which try to form in a whirlwind.
Some
years ago, I visited Irsara and found her working at her kitchen
table. I sat and watched her selecting and combining different
pieces of coloured paper, some of which were scattered on the
floor. I was aware
of feeling encompassed by this mysterious process – mysterious
to me though not to her – in which the selection of elements
would take us both into a new work, a new world. In each individual
work there is a complex and often lengthy process of ideas and
materials taking shape, but the final effect is a contemporary
lyric of intense colours.
Frances
Presley
(July 2005)
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