Simonetta Moro - Artist Statement 2010
My work exists in the space of memory, in the interstices between the real and the imaginary, the present and the past, the detail and the overview. Places and architecture influence my practice; history informs the content.
My drawings and paintings emerge through a cumulative, layered process that takes advantage of the translucency and texture of the materials, such as mylar or rice paper. These materials contribute to creating an allusive, dream-like quality, and give depth to the resulting image. Contrasting images are seen all at once, implying the simultaneity of perception and the suspension of time.
Photographic processes also play an important role in composing the initial image on canvas or paper. Used more or less literally, reproductions are re-contextualized and transformed to respond to the particular situation I construct.
Representation and abstraction coexist in my work - often situated at their edges. I see the map-form as a synthesis of these two modes, a metaphor that allows me to expand on the politics and poetics of places, and to evoke the idea of journey. A personal history of wandering made me investigate issues of placement and displacement. As tools for traveling, maps can either transport us into other worlds, or make us aware of the unseen details of our current world.