un certain regard · tiziana musi

“We have begun to understand our origin: we are star matter meditating on the stars." So reasoned Carl Sagan in Cosmos, around 1970, not long after Joni Mitchell had sung "We are stardust/ We are golden/ And we've got to get ourselves/ Back to the garden" (Woodstock). If, in those now-remote years, both the scientist's statement and the singer-songwriter's verses might have seemed far-fetched or still a bit rarefied, present-day physics and astrophysics no longer have any doubts that truly the matter of which we are made is composed of the dust of ancient stars and that, above all, our inner universe moves according to common laws that belong to everyone and everything; a substantial unity binds our existence to the larger movement of the cosmos, if only because of the symbolic power it carries as a dimension in constant expansion and transformation.

Thus, finding myself faced with two painters and a sculptor to be brought together in a common title and project (by the way, they have been friends for many years and have exhibited together on other occasions), each with her own expressive code, I could think of nothing else but the image of planets constantly moving within the same universe, the manifold and varied universe of creativity. Like that of the stars, which live and mutate, the productive and fruitful energy of Carolyn, Edith and Georgina moves in relation/encounter/clash with the surrounding stars, sometimes exploding, sometimes compressing into a seemingly impenetrable density, but only because it is the creator of a different space. Endless worlds and endless challenges for the viewer.

Seeking motivations for the title that came to mind, a "learned" reference also comforted me. Inter sidera versor - I move among the stars, is a Latin motto. In some ancient scripts - for example, Filippo Pacinelli's volume Mondo simbolico o sia Università d'imprese scelte, spiegate e illustrate, written in 1653 to comment on all the compositions of figures and words, used by different authors in order to represent figuratively a thought - it is associated with an object, the astrolabe, itself a symbol of those who study and increase their intellect. It seemed to me a fitting parallel with the work of our artists, who do not lack a conceptual component, along with a strong intimist dimension. This was then found in the acronym - Inside - contained within the Latin phrase and that convinced our artists, whom I could not help but ask for an opinion and comment.

‚…‘Moving among the stars as an artistic process (not without a hint of irony), inspiration, dreams, intuition: this is how Edith Urban leads us INSIDE, into the black box of her creativity, to use her words, where time is only human time, unmeasurable but no less exact. It is she herself who tells us that her operative process takes place in a kind of "other" dimension, outside of time, outside of control (and, in this sense, in keeping with the title, "moves among the stars"). Both in her canvases and in her works on paper, the pictorial material is not simply "spread" on the surface: instead, it is possible to appreciate a relief workmanship, which makes the colored pigment meet more dense and full-bodied substances, capable of being shaped. Edith's paintings seem to be scarified: sometimes the patterns that run through the fields of color are reminiscent of the reliefs of fabrics such as brocade, at other times the matter clumps into small agglomerates, often arranged in orthogonal diagrams, whose intersections function as points of energy. The same orthogonality is underscored by rows that sometimes stretch out like a pentagram, and at others cross over, giving order to the composition. It must be because of this underlying need, that in Edith Urban's works painting often meets the rhythm of writing, which is established first and foremost as a visual element, transformed into abstract composition. But the meaning does not escape. "The story of my life does not exist. It just doesn't exist. There is never a center. No path, no line": the words of Marguerite Duras in The Lover, taken up by our artist for this exhibition, do not convey nihilism as much as the feeling/certainty that everything experienced can turn into something else, that our hands can create, that the surface of a canvas can contain. As if to say that whatever happens, it is imagination that we can bring into play: those present are called upon to participate.

For additional information about the Gallery of Art: Shara Wasserman, Director of Exhibitions shara@temple.edu.