As is often the case with Giulia Cenci’s work, a literary reference runs through her creative process: Chiodi, the poetry collection by Agota Kristof, accompanied the making of these drawings and gave the portfolio its title. Against the black background of the 15 plates that make up the work, self-portraits emerge as if suspended in darkness, in which the female physiognomy dissolves into the head of a wolf, the human’s alter ego, free and untamed. Animals also surface from the dark, echoing the paintings of Goya, Rego and Vincenzo Simone, as do floating eyes, fragments of gazes from the frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The series of these pages offers an intimate and direct look at Giulia Cenci’s work, exploring the same technique of fragmentation and void found in her sculptures.
