A Block of Matter

Alessia Maria Concetta Carbonara; A Block of Matter (2021);  Installation approximately 160×120×103 cm with a sculpture of 9 glued books 32×27,5×24 cm, a worktable, 2 cutters, a saw, pieces of scratched paper on table ad floor.

In looking for something in a block of material it is natural to follow its characteristics, its marks, its pores, or its veins. In a block of books, however, there is not only the purely physical aspect to be taken into consideration.
Initially the artist’s interest was only on the material level, the paper is made of living fibers, which breathe, collect the humidity of the air, dilate, and shrink; and because of the living nature of the material, it could be possible that inside the block there is something.
In the sculpting process, during the research, there was something wrong: just following the horizontal lines of the pages was not enough, there was an urge to understand why those lines and not others and why not going against them.
This whirlwind of thoughts and ideas in continuous contrast led the artist to stop sculpting and to question herself more and more about the material and what led her in that direction.
Books cannot be considered just for their physical appearance, books have words, which go beyond being mere ink stains, they are stories and tales, it does not matter what is written, but only knowledge that can be read and can transmit something is enough to understand that they cannot be disregarded.
By following the horizontal lines of the pages all words were automatically destroyed, not even a complete word was saved. Then it made no sense to continue: there were too many possible references to follow, and if you followed one you automatically destroyed another, the criterion was wrong, it was not possible working this way in the hope of finding something, because something else was destroyed as a result.
There is more beyond matter.