︎stories ︎
Moira Ricci's photographs
‘Well I hear the music, close my eyes, feel the rhythm, wrap around, take a hold of my heart’ (Ora sento la musica, Chiudo gli occhi, Sento il ritmo che mi avvolge, Fa presa nel mio cuore) and 20.12.53-10.08.04 are works made by Italian artist Moira Ricci created between 2004 – 2009 following the death of her mother. ‘Well I hear the music…’ is a video piece created from home video footage taken by Ricci’s mother of her at dance recitals as a child and 20.12.53-10.08.04 comprises a series of photographs from Ricci’s family archive each featuring her mother over the course of her life. Ricci altered each photograph to add herself into the image - always at the same age, as an adult, and always looking at her mother. Ricci’s craft has enabled her to manipulate the photographs to create a realistic inclusion of her own image to the variety of different qualities of photograph that make up the work.
Ricci describes the works as a response to her mothers death stemming from her need to both remove the image of her mothers’ dead body from her mind and also to “carry on an external dialogue with (her) mother” (Ricci 2011) – firstly by seeing through her eyes (through the video footage taken by her mother) and secondly by placing herself within photographs of her mother to try to warn her of the accident that would lead to her death. The gaze is central to both pieces; in reference to 20.12.53-10.08.04 Ricci states “I always look at her as I need to tell her about the accident that is going to separate us. You can see from my gaze that I already know what will happen. Unfortunately I remained trapped in the picture, but at least close to her” (Ricci 2011). This body of work we know took place over five years (2004 – 2009) suggesting an ongoing-ness, a developing dialogue and possibly what Silverman and Klass refer to as a continued process of negotiation and meaning making.
Posted by Jayne
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‘Well I hear the music, close my eyes, feel the rhythm, wrap around, take a hold of my heart’ (Ora sento la musica, Chiudo gli occhi, Sento il ritmo che mi avvolge, Fa presa nel mio cuore) and 20.12.53-10.08.04 are works made by Italian artist Moira Ricci created between 2004 – 2009 following the death of her mother. ‘Well I hear the music…’ is a video piece created from home video footage taken by Ricci’s mother of her at dance recitals as a child and 20.12.53-10.08.04 comprises a series of photographs from Ricci’s family archive each featuring her mother over the course of her life. Ricci altered each photograph to add herself into the image - always at the same age, as an adult, and always looking at her mother. Ricci’s craft has enabled her to manipulate the photographs to create a realistic inclusion of her own image to the variety of different qualities of photograph that make up the work.
Ricci describes the works as a response to her mothers death stemming from her need to both remove the image of her mothers’ dead body from her mind and also to “carry on an external dialogue with (her) mother” (Ricci 2011) – firstly by seeing through her eyes (through the video footage taken by her mother) and secondly by placing herself within photographs of her mother to try to warn her of the accident that would lead to her death. The gaze is central to both pieces; in reference to 20.12.53-10.08.04 Ricci states “I always look at her as I need to tell her about the accident that is going to separate us. You can see from my gaze that I already know what will happen. Unfortunately I remained trapped in the picture, but at least close to her” (Ricci 2011). This body of work we know took place over five years (2004 – 2009) suggesting an ongoing-ness, a developing dialogue and possibly what Silverman and Klass refer to as a continued process of negotiation and meaning making.
Posted by Jayne
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