Anna Caione - Strato

Wednesday 31 May - Saturday 17 June 2023 

Click here for artwork by Anna Caione

The word strato, meaning layer or coating in Italian, reflects my personal approach to abstraction.

Expanding upon the themes explored in my previous solo exhibition (Five Walls, 2021), my latest body of work presents my attempt to recreate and interpret historical and vintage fabrics collected during my journeys to Italy. These have been sourced from traditional Italian upholsterers which I have kept for the pleasure that comes from recollection. With such keepsakes in hand, I am easily prompted to recall the emotions associated with a particular experience or visited place which reflect a nostalgic sensibility for my Italian heritage. 

My work is essentially a reworking of this intimate, ephemeral body of work as they carry a sense of history, the trace of a person’s touch and a sense of obsolescence.

In these tactile and soft works, I practice a personal collage technique that combines surface manipulation with various mediums. The vibrant colours and textures fixed within the surface patina of these artworks connect with the flow of energy inherent in materials. My nostalgic sensibility is a way to hold or touch something in which my distinctive memory is infinitely richer than its origins and is often experienced as physical sensations, such as touch that turns into texture.

I attempt to engage with the poetics of remembrance, reworking traditional textiles and raw pigments sourced from Italy. The fabrics and mediums become an extension of my hands and body in which the shapes, forms and colours collaborate, resulting in an abstract piece based on the concept of the monochrome blended with various tones of pigments and accent hues that subtly unite.

The artwork may be a metaphor for the subconscious and how it associates and collaborates with the physical making of the artwork. The subconscious is not verbal nor obvious; it may be a pathway to understand how I express my creative process which resonates as a bridge to cross and reach for growth and change of the human spirit, or even a metaphor for transformation as an outward expression of the inner.