Ruine

2019

Sculptures, wood and sand, variable sizes

« The third movement in the exhibition Il molteplice ridiventa uno is composed by two sculptures from the series Vue sur Jersey, the latest chapter of work opened by the artist after a stay in Normandy; (…). The latter are not part of furniture like those in Missive, but whole objects: two stools, one with wavy legs, which is the work titled Ruine N.1 (2019), and a simple one, called Ruine N.2 (2019). However, their intact being is not the only difference. Not only do they act  in space as if they were their own – and therefore not part of a larger whole – but they are also, in some way, complemented by the addition of natural elements: for instance, a small mountain of fine white sand rises up on the stool of Ruine N.1. We find this sand again at its base, and again on the ground in four small triangular piles. Two squared pebbles, also placed at the base of the object, provide an impression of the unbalancing  its center of gravity.

In Ruine N.2, the stool intrudes upside down on the carpet of Missive’s third installation, and here  two piles of sand lie next to it as if they had all fallen together: the result of chance or a studied staging?

In both sculptures, the white sand so conically poured recalls, in terms of shape, consistency and color, the sand of the hourglasses: visual materialization of time passing, of duration, that is a fundamental element, such as distance, to define the background against which we move; to describe the world in which we exist. »

Text by Elisa Rusca

Nina Haab. Il molteplice ridiventa uno., 2020, catalogue cur. Elisa Rusca and Anselmo Villata, Ed. VERSO L’ARTE – Roma (IT)