SIMONA RINCIARI
JIMSON WEED AND THE VEDAS
Neither ancient art nor modern art can claim primacy over the use of plants. In art, as always, originality is recognized less on the basis of a chronological first than on the novelty of the technique, the technical or artistic procedure thanks to which a given stroke of genius gains an unprecedented classification - or, as Goethe would say, who or what is not as important as how.
Originality is in the past, variety is in the present: we could say perhaps, in the words of Man Ray, "to create is divine, to reproduce is human", though we can't pretend that "we are the only species to create gratuitous forms" (Man Ray again). Even plants and animals in some cases do it, and chimpanzees and deer can contemplate a sunset; certain stages in the leaf development of the peony, according to Portmann, are purely autotelic, marvelously having no purpose apart from themselves; they are, in other words, aesthetic.
Simona Rinciari has not been the first to use plants in art but has invented a procedure, a technique to freeze them for eternity, to mummify them, almost to vitrify them. As a botanist-artist, she seems to have chosen to evoke some very delicate suggestions that belong to the world of biologists as much as to the world of those who study the soul, and all this through a very simple procedure (and we know that simple doesn't mean easy).
Her meticulous and austere art was borne out of her strenuous quest for such a procedure, applied to vegetable beings she gathers in nature, in the early 2000s; later it became perfected through various metamorphoses.
This procedure cannot withstand hesitations or carelessness, requiring instead a sort of solitary, aristocratic dedication, which seems to be rooted in both ancient alchemy and a lonely and visionary goldsmith's art. In more recent years, Simona Rinciari has delved with an elegant psychosomatic intensity to the creation of jewels made of poisonous and curative plants, exploring poisonings and remedies, decompositions to black and emanations from white, and dawns, cures, rebirths (as in the case of the current show dedicated to Aboca's pharmacopoeia).
The dandelion leaf that she elevates to the level of the precious Roman bracelet doesn't seem to relate to any of the many artistic experiences of and with nature, but rather seems to produce strange and real philosopher's stones, holding the key to the blissful longevity of the secret of Nature's phenomena, which reflect on those who love them and dare to contemplate them.
Luca Cesari
SIMONA RINCIARI
An artist from Sicily, she studied at Milan's Scuola superiore d'arte applicata del Castello Sforzesco and at the Accademia vetrinistica italiana, and was assistant to the painter Nino Mustica.
Among her passions are the history of religions and the American poet Ezra Pound, who was the subject of several of her works.
Rinciari has also pursued philosophical studies, with a focus on Neoplatonism, as well as studies on the metamorphosis of plants and angel iconography.
She is also active as a painter and has made installations, videos, and a documentary on psychiatry filmed at the Clinique de La Borde in France.
Her works include: Angeli alla Riscossa, presented by Gillo Dorfles (Monastero Agostiniano - Verucchio 2005, Magazzini del sale - Cervia 2005, Abbazia di Spineto - Siena 2006, Museo di Castel Sant'Angelo - Rome 2006), Gemine Muse (Regional Museum of Messina 2002), La Conca del Tempio, Ezra Pound e Sigismondo Malatesta (Rocca Malatestiana - Montefiore Conca 2001), Bizantini e Bisontini (International Festival of Street Theatre - Santarcangelo 2000).
The artist creates jewelry using an innovative technique that preserves the organic material (leaves, roots, fruits, flowers) while allowing the wearer to have direct contact with it.
Her jewelry has been exhibited in Europe, Japan and America. In 2008 Rinciari participated in the show Gioiello Italiano Contemporaneo, organized by Fiera di Vicenza and curated by Alba Cappellieri, Skira catalogue (Palazzo Valmarana Braga - Vicenza, Castello Sforzesco - Milan, Kunstgewerbemuseum - Berlin, and Fondazione Accorsi - Turin).
Other exhibitions in which she has shown her jewelry include: Natura e artificio (Museo di Storia naturale del Mediterraneo - Villa Henderson, Leghorn 2010), Piante vagabonde (Mo.C.A. - Rome 2009), Sfogliami e di gioie saziati (Mo.C.A. - Rome 2009), Gioielli in vegetale (Museo Tonino Guerra - Pennabilli 2008, Galerie Akim Künn - Berlin[??]), Gioie dell'orto (Siena 2007), Un gioiello a tavola (Galleria Sinopia - Rome, Palazzo dell'Arengario - Rimini 2007), Il sogno dell'albero rovesciato (Rimini 2006).
Among those who have written about her work are: Gillo Dorfles, Luca Cesari, Tonino Guerra, and Ugo Amati.