MARIA SASSETTI

Portugal, 1986

WADSTRÖM TÖNNHEIM GALLERY 

Using paper as my chosen support, I work on drawings, paintings and light installations.

Throughout my practice I adopt methodical, repetitive and manual processes. The represented elements are simple everyday objects that, somehow, retain an emotional charge and are meant to tell stories. I address the fragility of these supports, questioning the observer about the lifetime of the objects and places, but also on the length of their own memory and identity.

In my recent work, I recover techniques I used in my childhood, such as shredding, dripping or crumpling paper, over layers of textured paint marks and graphite. My gesture – repetitive, cadenced and falsely mechanical – marks the passage of time. Drop by drop or hole by hole, the pictorial surface gains texture, grit and its own weight, resembling skin.