SIGNS IN DISGUISE UNITE!

This text is to be viewed as a personal entrance to the works in Francesca Ferreri’s (b. 1981) current exhibition “Mathematics of matter” at Peola Simondi in Torino. She and I have shared many conversations in studios, over breaks and coffees. On these works and previous. We have talked about techniques, suppliers and fascinations. Ferreri invited me to write an associative text to accompany her works.

A sign can be written or it can emerge seemingly by itself. The latter could potentially be found among the trees in a forest, where the wild would be seen to write messages with branches and leaves in the languages of humans. The name for the psychological phenomenon of recognizing these signs is ‘pareidolia’. A key understanding here is that the signs only exist in the viewers imagination. But what if that isn’t true?

Let us suppose the opposite. An inverted ‘pareidolia’.

Francesca Ferreri, From the show 'Mathematics of matter', 2022. Peola Simondi Gallery, Turin (installation view, ph. Beppe Giardino). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Germination, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board ph. Beppe Giardino, 23 x 15 x 2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Germination, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board ph. Beppe Giardino, 23 x 15 x 2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Daily mood (et,de)#1, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board ph. Beppe Giardino, 30 x 23 x 2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Imagine, if what the chosen eyes see in the above mentioned forest are not fatamorganic signs, but actual signs disguised as branches of the trees. It would be a forest inhabited by meaning-bending sign creatures. Sometimes more hidden than other times. Some of them have gained a physical body, whereas others are merely outlines of existing shapes. Almost like inscriptions. But they are physically there with independent agencies. Their habitat is not restricted to the forest, they can be found everywhere.

Francesca Ferreri, From the show 'Mathematics of matter', 2022. Peola Simondi Gallery, Turin (installation view, ph. Beppe Giardino). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Math of matter #23, #28,#14,#15, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board, ph. Beppe Giardino, 30 x 23 x 2 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Math of matter #23, #28,#14,#15, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board, ph. Beppe Giardino, 30 x 23 x 2 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, From the show 'Mathematics of matter', 2022. Peola Simondi Gallery, Turin (installation view, ph. Beppe Giardino). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Math of matter #23, #28,#14,#15, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board, ph. Beppe Giardino, 30 x 23 x 2 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Math of matter #23, #28,#14,#15, 2022 (reinforced plaster, jesmonite, sand, consolidating resin, pigments, watercolors on board, ph. Beppe Giardino, 30 x 23 x 2 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, From the show 'Mathematics of matter', 2022. Peola Simondi Gallery, Turin (installation view, ph. Beppe Giardino).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Quiet, mossy yet alive, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Examining these creatures, they challenge us to, if we recognize their writing, to see anew. They turn to nomadic dimensions and layers to distort themselves. Hoping that in the distortion there is space for that which is difficult to catch in the straight. They act octopus-like, by absorbing and becoming their surroundings. Not only in color but also in texture. Growing foreign objects onto their bodies. I suspect Ferreri’s sculptures to be cousins of these signs, and her wall pieces to be formulas of the same. Ferreri openly plays with the extended potentials of signs and their essence.

Francesca Ferreri, Quiet, mossy yet alive, 2022 (jesmonite, sabbia silicea, polvere di marmo, pigmenti, gesso rinforzato, oggetti, resina consolidante, cartapesta, ferro, ph. Beppe Giardino, 330 x 350 x 360 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Quiet, mossy yet alive, 2022 (jesmonite, sabbia silicea, polvere di marmo, pigmenti, gesso rinforzato, oggetti, resina consolidante, cartapesta, ferro, ph. Beppe Giardino, 330 x 350 x 360 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Quiet, mossy yet alive, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri, Quiet, mossy yet alive, 2022 (jesmonite, sabbia silicea, polvere di marmo, pigmenti, gesso rinforzato, oggetti, resina consolidante, cartapesta, ferro, ph. Beppe Giardino, 330 x 350 x 360 cm).
Courtesy of the artist and Peola Simondi gallery.

Francesca Ferreri “Mathematics of matter”
February 11 - March 26, 2022.
Peola Simondi, Via della Rocca 29, 10123 Torino.