In the Jungle
Mirrors for
Barbini Specchi Veneziani
2022
Wilderness is nature in the absence of humankind. We have all experienced the state of the wilderness: a tract of land without paths, the dense forest's darkness, and the roar of wild animals.
In mankind, the desire to be restored to a primitive "state of nature" is innate.
With her jungle, Trevisan presents wilderness as a beautifully arranged herbarium: leaf upon leaf, one blade of grass beside the next.
In Pond, perception is vertical, and the horizon is inverted. The leaves fill the mirror, making it an impenetrable wall and become the basis of the composition, repeated, varied, aligned and piled up. The plants grow in rough conditions in the jungle, exposed to rain and buffeted by the wind. Trevisan enhances this wild state. In fact, behind the green lies black.
Nestled back among the growth, two monkeys face us. The Lemur is hidden in foliage save for a blazing set of eyes. Large lush flowers with dark petals grow above the Gorilla; it stares at us, wearing an odd expression.
Mirroring ourselves In the Jungle, we become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of our body. And here's the primitive state!
The "In the Jungle" collection was presented on the 1st edition of The Italian Glass Week during the exhibition VOLUBILIS curated by Barbini Specchi Veneziani at Palazzo da Mula in Murano from September 6th to 25th, 2022. The collection comprises three mirrors: Lemur, Gorilla and Pond. Limited edition of fifteen pieces each.
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Related Works
Coquilles for VILLARI
Process
To lose the wild is to lose that quality which makes us most human.
Monkeys are the protagonist of In the Jungle collection, an iconic and ironic element Trevisan used to explore something more human.
Adornment of the body is a human universal. Great apes in nature, especially orangutans, drape themselves with objects, usually vegetation, rarely animal skin, or even whole dead animals.
Self-awareness is why humans adorn their bodies, and it leads to self-expression. Once you know who you are, you want others to be impressed.
To distil all those sentiments visually, Trevisan created mirrors that revel in the natural beauty of their compositions and evoke great paintings such as Henri Rousseau's "The Hungry Lion Throws itself on the Antelope", part of her DNA as an artist. The ability to recognise oneself in a mirror is a hallmark of higher cognition and is the basis for empathy.
With time, we are losing the ability to empathise with nature. But mirroring ourselves In the Jungle, we can't escape that bond between humanity and the Earth.