SPRING-SUMMER
COLLECTION 1999.
“WOMEN:
SACRED AND PROFANE”
A new
collection inspired to Divinities, Saints and Sicilian Madonnas is born from
Marella Ferrera’s research.
Going
back in memory and considering “archaeological discoveries” the Gňrgone of
Selinunte with serpent like hair and the nymph of Arethusa , then Demetra and
Persefone, they have all come back to life, these pagan divinities are present
and become sublime in maternity and virginity: women who were born from the
Great Mediterranean Mother, personifying the Earth.
“Mythological”
paintings of old potters wonderfully sewn on soft clay colour crochet nets,
embroidered filet corsets inventing rose patterns, terracotta jewels are
repeated as symbols of the pagan “island”.
Using
poor raffia and gold and silver from offerings, the lead black of a Good Friday
and the purple red on the altars, the embroidered “tear-drops”, and material
designed to create “thorns” and rose petals: laser cut roses having a
sculpture effect or stamped on soft tulle with a pictorial effect.
A chromatic
choice and emotional force are superimposed and blended giving way to a symbolic
force immune from sacrilege but emerged in the sacred, in a continuous research
of a religious sentiment almost a safe refuge from the deep anxieties
characterising the end of this millennium.
The
devotion to Saints and Madonnas remind us of the Madonna painted by Antonello da
Messina and the unique war–Madonna on horseback and armed with a sword in
Scicli, the same sword on Marrella Ferrera’s woman-Madonna symbolizes
protection and defence, from the fury of time, man’s carelessness and the
artistic patrimony of an island: from the Dome in Noto to the mosaics in Piazza
Armerina, broken and ruined stones recomposed again organizing and replacing the
past centuries.
