2019

170 cm h

Textile sculpture sewn with cords – Plant-fibre stuffing – Head, hands and feet modelled in plaster. Wooden base

“Anthropomorphic textile sculpture is not a novelty in Patrizia Trevisi’s artistic production, where female figures with a strong archetypal significance often appear, allowing little or nothing to aesthetics and instead focusing on a powerful core of meaning and expression. Girl with the Red Ball departs from this practice; the construction process of the statue remains the same, but she is beautiful, delicate, and graceful in her movements.” (Giulia Ripandelli)

Here, the archetype is represented through the everyday and familiar image of a little girl with her red ball, yet there is no joy in her play; her face is sad and melancholic. This conveys an awareness of the passage from childhood to adolescence. Her childlike skin, white and delicate, skilfully sewn by assembling scraps of fabric and lace, has by now become a cage that is too narrow and painful for her age which, like the shell of a chrysalis, splits open to allow the butterfly to emerge; it tears apart, revealing the transformed material within. The delicate and graceful construction of the figure creates a striking contrast with the dramatic nature of the tears, stitched back together by a compassionate hand seeking to piece together something that has been irreversibly torn apart.