Carla Righi Lives and works in
Castel dAiano. Woman and Mother, almost always on the run trying to work out all the
ups and downs of an increasingly complicated everyday life. In the midst of
the almost always, Carla moulds clay in her workshop more of a shelter
for her, close to her house, equipped with a furnace, lots of clay, colors and surrounded
by the green of the woods and the silent noise of the mountains. She gives freedom
to bodies and faces otherwise trapped in their motionless prison of matter. Bodies and
faces amazing in their peculiar shape balance, in their restless and vibrant plasticity. Her works display
- with equal pride and a straightforward language the transparent sensuality of
female nudes, the baroque liveliness of the jolly maternity figures and the impetuous
exuberance of horses and horsemen, showing her inspirational hand. She never hides herself
behind mannerisms and empty aestheticism. Carlas only
source of inspiration and direction is reality itself no other academic reference
at all -, which she studies, absorbs, translates and transfers onto the clay with a
refined technique and a sumptuous fantasy. Its the fascination, the feelings, the
affection of defined moments of life she models in her hands, in a natural and involving
way. Her creations are
pristine. Uncontaminated by rules or a scholastic touch, they bear the simplicity and yet
the peculiarity of an instinctive form of art. The act of Inventio is,
therefore, magnified. Carla shapes and
gives life also to the classic characters of the Holy Nativity, bringing together the need
for a faithful interpretation with an essential composition. Her works are very respectful
of the traditional iconography and yet a new life beats inside them, thanks to her very
own esthetic trademark. At Christmas 2009,
Carla has been asked to mould twenty statues for the Holy Nativity to be displayed in San
Pietro Cathedral, Bologna. In this evocative representation, all the characters involved
cradle baby Jesus Christ with the intense, spiritual sweetness of their expressions and
the peacefulness of their attitudes, though lightly tinged with an unconscious sadness for
a tragic epilogue. The angel in particular has an impressive energy in his expression,
sweetened by the elegance of his motion. Gian Carlo Sbardella
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