Artist Statement:
MATER
The link between materials, processes and meaning is at the heart of my practice. In my work, familiar objects, and the matter that constitutes them, are taken out of their usual context and explored through material processes in the artist’s workshop. Materials are employed as means to reflect on personal, art historical and socio-political issues.
My current project is titled ‘Mater’, the Latin word origin for mother, material and matter. The focus of this work is parsley: a simple garnish that conceals a complex network of personal, cultural and social histories. Once considered ‘the herb of the dead’, parsley has been the subject of a number of superstitions and myths over time. Given its emmenagogic properties, it was strongly associated with the female body, not only to regulate the menses but also to induce miscarriages. In my search to understand the root of trauma in my life, I learnt that parsley played a crucial role in my family history: parsley tea is the poison that killed my grandmother in her youth, when she resorted to drinking it to remedy an unwanted pregnancy.
This discovery spurred a year-long research into parsley and its histories, revisited on a personal level as the site of trauma, and explored as a material in my art practice through glass processes. As an artist and a woman, who is also the mother of a young girl, I engage in the creative process as a way of interrupting the cycle of intergenerational trauma. For me, glass is in the intersection between life and art as they merge into one process. A medium of endless possibilities, alchemical properties and transformative power, glass is a constant in my work, often disguised as different materials from wax to stone, to ceramics, soap or even white chocolate! Glass is both a material and a process: an ideal means to reflect on the intricate web of interconnected histories that relate to parsley, to its past, and to what it represents currently as a symbol of women’s rights, in a time when hard-won abortion rights are increasingly under attack worldwide.
Moreover, this multi-layered work provides a deeper reflection on our attitudes towards womanhood, making a reference to the narratives that have influenced our thinking. From the depiction of the Virgin Mary to the fairy tale of Rapunzel, the work presents only some of the stories of control over women strongly related to the issue of pregnancy and consent. Through playful engagement with materials, the installation recreates the realm of fairy tales, that turns into a domestic prison, and is finally transformed into the artist’s workshop.
www.robertadecaro.com
@robertadecaroart