Antechamber Solo show Ana Mazzei

Ana Mazzei
Antechamber
12 November 2018– 5 January 2019
In her first solo exhibition at Green Art Gallery, Ana Mazzei fully embraces the notion of theatricality and
spectatorship, both very central to her practice, to present a group of new works specifically created for the space.
Titled Antechamber, the show is staged as an intermediary space between the real world outside the gallery and
an imaginary ‘other space’.
Walking along this in-between space, viewers have to negotiate their way through clusters of works that seem to
play different parts in a series of acts that occur simultaneously. However, narrative content - as is characteristic in
Mazzei’s work - is only insinuated through fragments of recognizable and often quite archaic or mythological
forms or figures that suggest non-linear, incomplete plots suspended in time. In some cases, such as Royale, one
single sculptural form is presented on top of a circular canvas painted in yellow whose surface spreads equally
along the wall and the floor below. Formed by three orthogonal timber lines, the sculpture’s essentialist character
could betray a formalist inclination. However, the addition of painting functions here as a scenic device that seems
to invest the work with other layers of interpretation. By framing the object with a backdrop, the artist establishes a
relationship between actor and set, making it possible for viewers to begin to identify a stylized torso and limbs in
the freestanding figure.
Theatre is more directly referenced in the work formed by a group of twelve ceramic and fabric puppetry
characters placed on thin strips of timber that seem to float in space. In this distinctly figurative piece, there is not
only a shift in style but also in relation to scale. In fact, the latter is a recurrent methodology in Ana Mazzei’s
practice, and this ‘Alice in the Wonderland’ effect is present across the several works on view in this exhibition. In
the floor piece Trio, for example, a set of dozens of small sculptures is framed on both sides by triangular metal
frames that circumscribe a tiny scene built to be seen from above. The work formed by wooden sculptures
combining sinuous curves and straight cuts, with the dark-tinted surface of most elements drawing elementary
shapes against the light background. Atop one of them, an almond-shaped form resembles a large eye; another is
topped by thin square metal frame; others are more like early modern or primitive sculptural exercises. While each
of these sculptures seems to posses an individual character, they function in relation to each other both as part of
an indefinite ‘spectacle’ and formal elements in a composition.
As viewers move along the space, the relationship between their bodies and the works must be constantly
readjusted, their physical presence growing or shrinking as they encounter the different situations staged by the
artist. At the far end of the room, an abstract painting takes architectural proportions. Depicting a dark,
semicircular shape that recalls a passageway, the work seems to function as a backdrop that marks the final act of
the fictional spectacle enacted by Ana Mazzei in Antechamber.
Kiki Mazzucchelli

Green Art Gallery

25711, Alserkal avenue, Green Art Gallery, unit 28, Dubai

This release was published on openPR.