Abstract:
Over the past decade, Chiara Camoni has built a singular practice that connects the process of craft with the spiritual world. Employing materials traditionally associated with the domestic - ceramics, dyed fabrics, and loom-weaving, Camoni develops works in types, or series, which share a distinct visual language. Large-scale figures made from terracotta and adorned with intricate detail recall ancestral deities, while intimately scaled works referencing Egyptian canopic jars create a direct experience with the viewers. Hanging silks are dyed with vegetation, creating evocative images that reference the female form, while inviting chance into their process. Across Camoni’s practice, her works maintain a deep relationship to the place in which she works, utilizing natural materials gathered from the landscape surrounding her studio, and involving a broader community, often of women, to help realize her projects. Brought to life through collective means, and deeply connected to ritual rites and practices, Camoni’s works bring the spiritual languages of the past into a new history of the present.