Animalier whisperer, Benedetta Mori-Ubaldini, has summoned her memories and "given them substance", enticing us into a zoic reverie. Humans are welcome but here the animals rule.
Her medium of choice is a humble one, chicken-wire, and it is brought to life as she curls, folds, manipulates then paints it. With patience and careful thought it becomes clear that Benedetta has seamlessly woven an extraordinary world of sculptures which, unimpeded by solidity, physically populate the space without quite being there.
We are immersed in her vision and succumb to her lures; we willingly enter her alternative reality inhabited by giant mushrooms, purple rats and red birds resting in the branches of an ice-white tree. Elsewhere, we watch a romantic blue chimp present a posy to his lover. Innovative use of space and scale and an almost child-like palette give a visual potency to her work.
Benedetta says of herself and her work : "I'm Italian but I grew up in Asia and Holland and I lived for 15 years in London. I'm a kind of hybrid….linguistically and culturally, so I think art comes from the need to speak my own language, like a personal 'third' language. I want to fill …. spaces with narratives, I like to be evocative, symbolic and poetic."
Benedetta's sculptures are in private collections both in Europe and in the United States and Themes & Variations are delighted to present her first solo exhibition in the UK.