A Cocktail, Moses and Winged Sandals (embossing), 2019
Embossed velvet, 300 × 200 cm
Winged Sandals, Moses and a Cocktail (carving), 2019
Carved linoleum mounted on wood, 210 × 150 cm
At the occasion of their residency at the American Academy in Rome, Dina Danish & Jean-Baptiste Maitre made a number of works including series of engravings, embroideries and embossing.The works were made for a traveling exhibition in Italy, at The American Academy in Rome, in Milan at Rita Urso Gallery, and in the Netherlands at galeries Stigter van Doesburg and Martin van Zomeren, in 2019-2021.
Intrigued by Rome’s casual layering of time, Dina Danish and Jean-Baptiste Maitre imagined a facade – based on Michelangelo’s Moses – that would both represent this phenomenon and be a record of their stay at the American Academy. The figures that fill this facade are a reaction sometimes to historical architecture and sometimes to encounters with the contemporary. For instance, the mismatched columns on the incised linoleum sheet recall walks taken with AAR Mellon Professor Lynne Lancaster and the many repurposed architectural elements seen along the way. A field of evil eyes echoes a printed tote bag purchased at a Roman branch of the Danish chain store Flying Tiger; this tote, in turn, took from a recent Kenzo pattern, which itself derived from ancient symbolism.
Formal and temporal convergences abound in Dina and Maitre’s architectural invention. Inspired by the coiffure of the Greek Dionysus, as seen in a Roman copy at the Palazzo Massimo, busts with the famed 1990s “topsy tail” hairdo make up the capitals of several mismatched columns. Vases with Arabic and Greek-inspired gibberish recall encounters with similarly inscribed Etruscan vessels during a visit to the Villa Giulia with Professor Tom Carpenter, as well as with the effusive graffiti commonly seen along the streets of Rome. A foot wearing a winged sandal (from a fascist monument in EUR, now housing Fendi headquarters), a still-life by Giorgio Morandi, animated clouds inspired by The Simpsons, the long beard of Moses by Michelangelo … Danish and Maitre create a matrix of colliding imagery that is appropriately redoubled, from the taut surface of carved linoleum to the malleable pile of crushed velvet.
This work was made for:
CINQUE MOSTRE 2020: Convergence
An annual exhibition of projects by the Rome Prize and Italian Fellows and invited artists.
Curated by Elizabeth Rodini and Ilaria Gianni
Opening: February 20, 2020, American Academy in Rome, Via Angelo Masina 5
Information: https://www.aarome.org/event/cinque-mostre-2020-convergence
Victor Hugo Was Here, 8 embroideries on tulle of about 50 x 85 cm each, 2020
Collaboration by Jean-Baptiste Maitre and Dina Danish, for a traveling exhibition at Gallery Rita Urso, Milan, Italy, and Galleries Stigter van Doesburg and Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2019-2021
Title of the series: “Victor Hugo Was Here”
“Victor Hugo Was Here” is a series of 8 embroideries on tulle of about 50 x 85 cm each.
Dina Danish and Jean‐Baptiste Maitre have reproduced with embroideries of mixed colored threads some images
drawn from ancient carved graffiti, along with doodles made on writing pads to try out new pens. The title of the
series is inspired by an original graffiti found in an ancient Egyptian site.
PDF Title list and introduction
Here is an extract from an interview conducted by Giulia Pezzoli, curator at MAMbo ‐ Museo d'Arte Moderna di
Bologna:
Giulia Pezzoli: "The old inscriptions and engravings in stone that inspired you could be described
as primitive forms of subjective communication addressed to a potential public: they
are the product of individual expressive needs, conveying spontaneous, simple
messages, yet they contain a yearning for eternity. In this respect they resemble
contemporary artworks - however, in our current imagination, their origin and history
are not seen as belonging to art, or the official communication of art, and besides,
they are often associated with vandalism and perceived as a ‘threat to the system’.
Your work de-contextualizes them and places them in an institutional setting, the
exhibition space, thereby ‘officializing’ them. Have they finally acquired the status
that they should have always been granted? Can we describe this as a restitutive
act? An act of justice?"
Dina Danish: It is probably not our fascination with the aesthetic of graffiti, but the act of vandalism and the
human need to inscribe something on walls since ancient times that fascinated us. We even looked at
children’s wall drawings from the Roman period and not much has changed since then. The need to also
inscribe your name on the wall, to not be forgotten; that is what we found fascinating. I once read in the
introduction to the ancient Egyptian “Book of The Dead” that ancient Egyptians considered the
inscription of their name as a form of existence, and that was not meant in a metaphorical sense.
Jean-Baptiste Maitre: Carved graffiti, from whatever age, brings you back to the presence of those who were there and
their desire to manifest their presence. There is indeed a strange feeling that carved graffiti embed the
moment when it was made and the moment when it can be seen, potentially thousands of years later. It
causes vertigo in those who look at it. I wouldn’t call it primitive though, they just feel spontaneous. And
I don’t see them as art either, but they have a peculiar aura that is appealing to art. I guess the fact that
these traces of vandalism are now on display simply expands their area of communication to a new
location and time, as they are being modernized. It’s Expanded Vandalism, as it were.
JB: We thought of embroidery as a way to extract graffiti from their original historical
and architectural context and introduce them into our present, real time. Using embroidery gives a
visual feeling of having peeled off a layer of architecture and time, and placed it again inside the
exhibition space. I wouldn’t really say that the embroideries are three‐dimensional, they are closer to
paintings, I think.
Dina Danish: Well, they are as 3D as low reliefs are, I think.
