Stitchomythia

2018-2019
Serralves Foundation, Porto
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Nadia Lauro and Zeena Parkins — visual artist

Zeena Parkins — concept, ac. harp, electronics, feedback machine, 10 loudspeaker diffusion, Foley
Nadia Lauro — concept, design, lights
Volmir Cordeiro, Latifa Laabrissi, Stephen Thompson — visitors

The convergence of interests and respective research on the question of the motif and the ways in which it is perceived have led composer/performer Zeena Parkins and the scenographer Nadia Lauro to jointly develop the visual installation and musical performance ‘Stitchomythia’. ‘Stitchomythia’ is an anamorphic carpet designed for performers, whose optical motifs, the topography in anamorphosis - and the perceptual disorder that emanates from them - constitute a musical score unfolded at the scale of the space. ‘Stitchomythia’ follows the paths of ‘Anamorphic Rug’, a previous installation created by Nadia Lauro and inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Shining’. The two-dimensional carpet gives the uncanny illusion of folds, hollows, waves, hills and ground movements. An anamorphic fiction, this carpet constitutes an optical device governed by the laws of “the art of the secret perspective” resulting in a perceptive ambiguity for the viewer, between the visual illusion of a landscape in relief and the bi-dimensional reality on which the performers evolve.

Additionally, ‘Stitchomythia’ is the newest installment of ‘Lace’, an ongoing project that Zeena Parkins began in 2008, based on a collection of lace fragments. It is a multi-movement composition that proposes lace as a score which viewed from varied distances is perceived as picture, with patterns toggling between near and far illusionary points of view.

Within this topography there is a solo performance of Parkins on acoustic harp, a feedback machine dispersed in ten speakers, a tremelo that shakes the room, and field recordings from various lace ateliers: quiet whispers discuss cross and twist actions, and the sound of wooden bobbins bounce against the firm lace pillow. The peripheric space is animated and the anamorphic carpet, which provides Parkins with her scores is networked with ‘visitors’ that mark a spirit-space filled with the psychologic inquires of a deep dive into the obsessional work of lace-making and its economy.

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