Giusy Pirrotta

Ritual of healing

Ceramic glazed, candles
Installation view at Contemporary Cluster, Rome, 2022
Photo Giorgio Benni

The installation is one of my first autobiographical projects where I mainly use ceramics as a means of symbolic representation.
The work stages a healing ritual through the arrangement of the sculptures around the shape of a cross which represents change and rebirth. The blue color amplifies the sense of spirituality, mystical and ritual, by absorbing the light of the room. The use of this color, together with the arrangement of the plinths, creates a hole in the center of the structure that absorbs the negative memories related to the experience exorcised during the ritual.

The project refers to an autobiographical experience of breast cancer, which I was diagnosed with in April 2021.
There are a group of three figures celebrating the healing ritual, each of these is composed of a pair of feet and a head or bust, and are arranged around the main figure: a ceramic bust with a rose in place of one of the breasts from which a small snake emerges, this represents the carcinoma. This sculpture wears an armour made up of a pair of eyes that defends the body through the sense of sight.
There is a group of candelabras - placed underneath the bust - which recall the shape of hands and at the same time the sinuous movement of the snake. The fire of the candles represents a purifying element, and it is strongly connected to the ritual aspect of a ceremony.
On the sides of the bust there are a group of divinatory hands, one in the shape of a candelabra, while the other is made up of a pair of hands which have a pair of eyes on their palm that overlook the room. These are sentient hands because they have also a pair of hears, and are inspired by the idea of ​​an alchemical and divinatory hand.

The aesthetic of the sculptures is inspired by the pagan rituals celebrated by the Agot, women in costume, in the Cross River area in Nigeria, and by the anthropological photographic studies connected to pagan rituals, the use of masks and costumes documented by Philys Galembo in the books "Mexico Masks & Rituals ”and“ Maske", Charles Fréger “Wilder Mannn”, Silvester Hans “Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa".