From 'Blind Sun'
In Blind Sun, Elisa Strinna investigates and creates mysterious ecosystems in places between the sun to the oceanic abyss. A starting point for this project was the artist’s observation of the interaction between organic life and human infrastructures, and a study of different natural forces — such as gravity or wind, in creating the structure of geological components, like stones or meteorites. The resulting microcosms that Strinna creates are attempts to refocus our attention onto the potentially infinite and obscure dimensions of our planet.
Blind Sun brings together material forms whose temporality is undetermined. Strinna’s sculptures resemble fossils and primitive biological species; at the same time, they cohabitate with modern-day technology. One of the ecosystems is called the Hadean Territory, metaphorically referring to the Hadean period: the era when the solar system was forming within a cloud of dust and gas, an enigmatic period for science till this day. For Elisa Strinna, that time is as mysterious as the bottom of the ocean, both are spaces that human ingenuity cannot reach.
The ocean floor is strewn with underwater cables. What we refer to as the “cloud” in the digital world is in fact conducted underwater — a transatlantic fiber-optic network that supports a global information transmission system. A submerged landscape, hardly reachable for the human eye. It exists in a temporal porosity that might evoke a certain feeling of nostalgia. Under the influence of the abyss — reveals a new, hybrid territory where artificial and natural merge. In this space, the undersea cables lose their industrial design to become one with the sea anemones and sponges. In particular, the sea anemone Metridium farcimen and the sponge phylum Porifera. These creatures have been discovered to follow the fibers, even when they are buried under the sand. As if they were attracted by the electromagnetic fields produced by the human-made conductors.
At Galerie Caroline O’Breen, Strinna presents a fraction of this ever-growing (2019-2021) fictional ecosystem where remote/unseen relationships between the natural and the artificial are disclosed. This project has been previously exhibited at the Jan Van Eyck Open Studios (2019, NL), Fidelidade Arte (2019, PT), Culturgest Porto (2020, PT), and at A Tale of a Tub (2021, NL).