October, 01 2018

 

Not to be confused with egocentricity, Elemania can be defined by the obsessive magnitism generated by the works of Elena Salmistraro in her first solo-show. This explains Elemania, the exhbition which cc-tapis has dedicated to the young sensation from the world of contemporary design celebrating her most recent works.

Exhibition 05/10 - 26/10 10:00 - 13:00

cc-tapis showroom, Piazza Santo Stefano, 10 ,20122 Milano

 

 

Born in 1983, a Milanese with a rebel-soul, a maniac for texture and in love with documentaries, especially those about exotic animals. From early-on she manifested the desire to escape ordinary society through drawing, living in a routine which was often too grey and repetitive for someone who loved to isolate themselves in fantasty.

It would be her drawings with strong black lines, which created the seperation between reality and imagination.Flat colors without a shadow, reflect the intent of this multifaceted artist to represent the fictional elements which make her characters come to life, just like a fairy-tale, taking form full of real human traits and emotions, playing on the mundaneness of daily-life; suggesting a new philosophy for living.

Unlike most designers of her time, Elena always starts her creative process with illustration, which she then shapes and transforms through sculpture and two-dimensional details. As in Flatland the novel by Edwin A. Abott, her collection of 6 rugs for cc-tapis, the geometric forms mix together overlapping with eachother, unaware of their energy, color and magic.

In the universe of Elemania, the exhibition presents an excess of graphic symbols offering the viewer a stereoscopic but at the same time a two-dimensional image, which takes depth and volume away from the space but also teleports you to a territory suspended beyond the frame.

 

 

Mrnd (2015, Seletti) lamps are a tribute to the master Giorgio Morandi, a current reinterpretation of his work declined through an emotional dialectic that wants to evoke the “Morandiana” atmosphere, in a union between art and design. The objects by Morandi that are most iconic belong to his still life, in particular the bottles made magical by the clever use of feeble colors and illuminated by a soft light. Elena Salmistraro, with a method that is almost surgical, extracts the object from the canvas that imprisons it, giving them back to 3D through a sort of a spell. Transforming the bottles in lamps, the enchanted light that Morandi used to give to his work becomes part of the object itself, the shadows – wisely used - become discordant materials,the ripples coming from the brush stroke of the master acquire a specific configuration converting themselves into a texture that has a contemporary flair. Also the colors geta new life, yet staying natural and soft, they look like they’re chasing a new position within our current perspective.

Dimension: Anna (Powder pink) ø cm. 16 h. 39,5 ≈ø 6.3” h. 15.6” ≈, Dina (Grey - light blue) ø cm. 15,5 h. 29,5 ≈ø 6.1” h. 11.6” ≈, Maria Teresa (Green) ø cm. 19 h. 36,5 ≈ø 7.5” h. 14.3” ≈

Material: Glass, porcelain, wood, cork.