INSIDE cycle

2024

Canvas and lace sewn onto three wooden hoops –                                            plant-fibre padding – cotton embroidery.

For the ancient Greeks, psyché (ψυχή) was the soul and the breath; here, in this work, it is understood as a butterfly, a symbol of transformation and rebirth.

The metamorphosis of the butterfly, from caterpillar to chrysalis and, finally, to butterfly, is undoubtedly the most powerful meaning of this symbol, because it represents change, personal growth, rebirth and transformation.

In mythology, the butterfly is a symbol of the soul, of lightness and of the volatility of the vital spirit. The butterfly is also a symbol of fragility and beauty, but also of the brevity of life, of impermanence, and also of happiness.

In the triptych Psiché, the passage from childhood to adolescence is narrated; precisely this painful and mysterious moment of transformation.

The whiteness of the canvas represents the skin of a young girl, white and delicate. Carefully sewn together by assembling scraps of fabric and lace, it has now become a cage that is too narrow and painful for her age which, like the shell of a chrysalis, breaks open to allow the butterfly to emerge; it tears apart, revealing the transformed material within. The delicate and graceful construction of the triptych creates a short circuit with the dramatic nature of the tears, stitched back together by a compassionate hand that seeks to piece together something that has been definitively torn apart, attempting to stop the passage of time that will lead to the complete metamorphosis of the girl into a woman.

In all cultures, the butterfly has been regarded as a sign of rebirth and regeneration, as a symbol of the human soul capable of renewing and transforming itself.

The particular life cycle of the butterfly has undoubtedly contributed to this symbolic association: life is represented by the caterpillar stage; death by the inert chrysalis enclosed within the cocoon; rebirth by the butterfly emerging from its casing and flying away freely, a living image of the rebirth of the spirit, of the soul freed from the casing of matter, which leaves the body at the moment of death and becomes immortal.