Leslie Hirst: Il Filo dei Messaggi

Halfway between writing and visual art, the work of the American painter Leslie Hirst subtly challenge the way we are used to read the signs of language. Following a visit to Burano in 2005, Hirst was pushed to create compositions that merged words and lace as the fabric and open spaces, respectively the content and the context, propose two versions of original writing.

The language of Hirst consists of fragments, scraps of images and random shapes derived from her vast personal library made of handwritten letters and photographs of graffiti. These resources represent a deep bond with the art of lace as depicting the passage of time through an unbroken line.

The set, designed specifically for the Lace Museum, becomes a visual metaphor of the Silk Road, and alludes to the influence of the raw material and economic structures on style, on manufacturing and communication. So the artist’s work recalls the important link between the lace and different cultures.