UNROOTED, Exhibition, Shatto Gallery, Los Angeles, 2025
The notion of being UNROOTED is something that resonates deeply in Los Angeles, as so many people have come from different places, states, or countries. For me, it’s personal, as I come from another country, Italy.
My body of work is closely tied to nature. In this exhibition, I had the opportunity to use nature as a metaphor, exploring how its subjects reflect human existence. The two most significant elements on this planet are humanity and nature. I cannot work on a project concerning humanity and our condition on Earth without addressing nature, as they are so interconnected.
As someone who feels sometimes foreign everywhere, I experience myself as part of the universe. My roots are in Italy, but they are lifted since I am no there all time, I’m in between. My “unrooted” roots float above, suspended in the air. The past and present merge together, and while we cannot avoid or forget our past and places where we came from, it is essential to acknowledge that the present is deeply rooted in it. We can only look to the future through the lens of our present, which is shaped by the past our roots.
SOMEWHERE EVERYWHERE AND NOWERE (IN BETWEEN), represents past and present. It’s a work started during the pandemic, while in isolation, I began working with these paper fragments. Re-discovered pieces of papers, drawings, scketches, fragments of memories, traces that I carried with me since my living in Italy. It was a kind of meditation, a process of confronting myself and the world we were living in. I didn't know where it would lead, but something within me urged me to use these fragments to explore both my own identity and the collective experience we were all enduring. This catharsis became a way to engaging with both past and present and questioning our survival and our place in the world. What if this had been the end of our sources? This experience made me reconsider my space into the world and the way I connect to it. What emerged was a map, not only physical spaces, but of my own unrooted existence, a map that navigates memories, materials, lost identities, historical references and feeling to be an outsider.
Thought I'm unrooted in a physical sense, my connection to the past and present remains, My traces are embedded in the world, through the objects and materials I use in my creative process, as relationship that I have with my personal history connecting with the present time to unify the togetherness telling the story and the process of the work itself.
The UNITED SHADE OF THE WORLD work, carrying Italian roots, history and culture, which is part of who I am, at the same time, this history feels fragile like paper where Mediterranean symbolism now is problematic placed of displacement. But also evokes a sense of lightness and freedom.