Loriana Scarnicchia
UK
www.feltrevolution.com
Title
Gli Acrobati (The Acrobats)
This artwork represents the search for a lost balance as a consequence of isolation, fears and solitude due to the recent worldwide pandemic of covid-19.
There are no doubts that the last year has been one of the most difficult and scary of all times.
We are made for socializing, communicating, sharing our feelings, and connecting with each other.
Suddenly, we started to lose everything we thought was for granted and many of us lost connection with others and with themselves.
I believe we all felt like acrobats without balance and not safety net.
For this reason, my artwork symbolises the pursue of balance and re-connection with ourselves and with the people around us.
I used bright colours to symbolise the end of the darkness, and my acrobats are re-connected with each other, almost fused together trying to regain the balance and harmony lost.
The safety net is back, full of colours and strength, to symbolise the restored hope.
The “felting therapy” helped me to keep my inner acrobat in balance.
Materials and Techniques
The base is classic handmade felt. I covered a large area with merino wool and laid three layers.
On top of that I have positioned the heads, bodies, arms and legs that I have already pre felted.
This technique is called “mosaic” and normally the pre-felted parts are not completely felted to allow the fibres to combine with the base. I used this method for the heads and bodies. Particularly the legs and arms resulted very challenging, as I had to cut them in a curvy mode and fusing the two different colours together. To avoid them to shrinking too much, I intentionally almost completed the felting process, risking in this way that they did not fuse with the base, but permitting the design to maintain its size and avoiding to have the two acrobats too distant or with too short legs and arms.
I also used a needle felt technique to create some shadows around the bodies, legs and heads.
The net is created using silk threads intersected around the bodies, using an embroidery needle.
Artwork size in CM: Width 45cm Length 41cm Depth 0.5cm
