Ciaccia Levi

Via Gioacchino Rossini 3, 20122 Milan, Italy

MON - WED CLOSED
THU - SUN 2 P.M. / 7 P.M.

ARTISTS:
Zoe Williams
Carol Rama (Collezione Ramo)

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Zoe Williams answers questions from
Irina Zucca Alessandrelli, curator of Collezione Ramo

Give a definition of what drawing is for you.

Drawing for me is a functional practice and at the same time a tool to make a wish come true. The process of "drawing," I literally interpret it as "drawing" something and turning it into reality, so it has a strong resemblance to a magical tool or process in my opinion. I think of drawing as a game, as a text or as a symbol. As the possibility of turning relationships that could not exist in known reality into reality, drawing what is not visible, what is unconscious, and making irreverent connections between things.

What is your relationship with drawing? And with the history of Italian art of the last century?

Drawing underlies my practice in many ways, it is first thing I do when I am trying to imagine a project, whether it is an installation, a performance, a film, a ceramic, or just a series of drawings. The drawing has to test the limits of these things and act as an intermediary between my ideas and their realization. Often, I think what I'm really interested in returning in my drawings is a sense of playfulness and pleasure of movement, and that's what I'd like to achieve in my art practice in general as well. Ultimately this is difficult, but what I am looking for is the tension in achieving it.

In terms of my relationship with Italian art history of the last century, I think I am inspired more by specific figures of this time than by movements in general. In this regard, Carol Rama's work has fascinated and inspired me for years and is something that has deeply influenced my practice. Her early watercolors of ecstatic, often constricted bodies masturbating amidst an orchestra of animals, shaving brushes, eyes, shoes, and fur are like a violent rip-off and I am fascinated by the unruly confrontation of violence and eroticism that exists within them. I am also interested in how these themes are distilled and reworked through her more abstract works with tires, taxidermic eyes, and paint.

Pier Paolo Pasolini's films, such as The Canterbury Tales and Medea, are also among the most important influences on my practice. I am interested in how Carol Rama and Pasolini acted as individuals, as "rebel" figures, somehow outside of specific movements, how their work relates to the socioeconomic conditions of the time, and, no less important, how their approach can be read as a quirky critique of consumerism and the restrictions operated by religious fundamentalism and fascism.

Why did you choose this work from Collezione Ramo?

I chose this work because of the love and interest I have developed over time for Carol Rama and her work. The taxidermic eyes, atomic equations, and visceral blood as ink smeared on paper seems to fuse the human, the object, and the animal into a rich soup. In this drawing I also perceive hints of his earlier figurative watercolors, which were censored in the 1930s during the fascist era. I am intrigued by the artist's shift toward abstraction, but also by the persistence of the animalistic sense that evokes all his work. The representation

pride in "difference" or so-called perversion and abjection, along with sensuality, I believe are aspects that Carol Rama used as an incredible weapon, which was not always properly understood or valued during her lifetime.

I have tried to work around this work and use it as a catalyst or magic mirror to create a tribute to Carol Rama's work through my own work. The drawings I exhibit feature objects and animal life as the main protagonists, while keeping the body ever present in the image.