Sara Montani, HERBARY. LEAVES FROM LIVIA’S GARDEN
Leaves of vine, fig, medlar, kiwi, apple, pear, mulberry, passion flower, Canada vine, hydrangea, glycine, magnolia, ivy, fern. Fruits and flowers return through their leaves to tell us a story that is both delicate and emblematic. This is the story of Livia, the artist’s mother, the third mother of an artist we have met. She dedicated the last years of her life to transforming a large meadow, not far from Edolo, into a variegated orchard. An undertaking that her children were slow to understand, but which, thanks to the artist’s sensitivity, was transformed into the greatest gift they had ever received. In recent months, Livia has been confined to her chair by illness and her daughter Sara, in search of a viable contact, has involved her in her work. She persuaded her to work with her, to transform the leaves of her orchard into matrices to be printed on paper, thanks to the press. A four-handed work – witnessed by the single sheet hanging on one of the two walls – which has evolved, in the artist’s practice, into a refined and virtuous herbarium on the opposite wall. In this way, together with the perfectly reproduced plant patterns, we can see the unpredictable stains of the sap released under the press, «synonymous, a concrete and true sign of the vital nourishment that mother has left in me and in my children».
THE ARTWORK
Herbarium. Livia’s garden leaves, 2012, original prints printed in monoprint with chalcographic press, paper Grafia delle Cartiere di Sicilia Vine leaves – fig – medlar – kiwi – apple – pear – mulberry – passion flower – Canada vine – hydrangea – wisteria – magnolia – ivy – fern. 30 x 40 cm each