THE SIR DENIS MAHON FOUNDATION ▸ Artist in Virtual Residence

RESIDENT ARTIST

ROBERTA CHIONI

This month we are delighted to show Ghiacci Perduti (‘Lost Ice’), a work by the artist Roberta Chioni.

Ghiacci Perduti (‘Lost Ice’)
By Roberta Chioni
Hand stitched assemblage of linen and cotton fabrics, printed paper, bubble polyethylene, various yarns
57 x 94 cm

Exhibitions:

Trama e Corte, Rocca di Sala Baganza 2021

This tapestry, Lost Ice, is the culmination of a lengthy work-in-progress. Chioni was inspired to make a painting based on a 1970 photograph of the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest formation of its kind in Antarctica, and in 2009 she translated the work into an abstract tapestry. In 2021 she revisited the work, incorporating techniques of patchwork and paper spinning that had subsequently occupied her work.

Chioni’s adaptation of the work parallels the degradation of the ice shelf, whose steady decrease in size has accelerated due to global warming in the years since the tapestry’s inception and creation. The work is comprised of recycled materials, uniting discarded matter with the consequences of human pollution in the very fabric of the work: its surface is comprised of textile fragments, leftover yarn suspended in bubbles from packaging material, twisted pieces of newspaper and advertising leaflets. As Chioni writes, ‘It is impossible to go back to the origin, but we can try to slow down this process, with everyone’s contribution, even in our daily practices.’

BIOGRAPHY

Roberta Chioni is an Italian creator of fibre art, who since 1980 has been creating and exhibiting tapestries, fabrics, and textile installations around the world. Living and working in Genoa, she combines her passion for textiles with her formal training in architecture.

She has shown her work at solo and collective exhibitions in Genoa, Venice, Faenza, Milan, Savona, Bologna, as well as in France and Spain. She participated in exhibitions by Minartextil until 2000. More recently she was invited to exhibit at Mathematics and Art at the Primiero Fair and Fashion Tech and Box Shock at the Museo Labirinto, both in Milan (2009); Please Me Fashion at Palazzo Ducale placed in Sabbioneta (2010); Codici dell’Apocalisse in Art-City, Bologna (2014) and Techno Medioevo – Age of Future Reloaded at Museum of the Order of St John, London (2018).

Her work spans private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gallarate and the Textile Museum in Chieri. Her work has been widely published, including: Dizionario degli Artisti Liguri, Intrecci del novecento, ARTE magazine, Elle, La Repubblica, Espoarte, Les Nouvelles.

In 1990, she designed a custom exhibition space for the tapestries at the Museo del Pizzo in Rapallo. In 2012, she was commissioned to create a series of ten tapestries for the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola in Genoa during the ‘Rolli Days’ festival.

She organises conferences, consultations, and weaving courses at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa, and for fifteen years she has been the artistic director of The Fabric of Art in Celle Ligure.