Maria Lai - Aggius Loom

Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, the so-called poetics of the object began to spread in European and American art. Harking back to the readymade of Dadaist memory, a new wave of groups or movements repurposed everyday objects as works of art emerged. The departure from traditional Dada lay in the strong influence of Abstract Expressionism, which led to the reconfiguration of objects with new languages ​​and new stimuli. In Italy, the poetics of the object were particularly embraced by the Arte Povera movement. Maria Lai's research also fits into this artistic context. Her artistic production has focused on the loom as an object. Originally from Sardinia, Maria Lai connects with a tool deeply rooted in her homeland, building a link between past and present. The structure of the loom is reconfigured by the artist in ever-new assemblages, each with a different perceptual stimuli.

The work is one of Maria Lai's famous looms. In this case, the artist developed a rigid structure of iron and wood, unlike other works that used cordage, in an aesthetic more akin to Arte Povera. Here, however, we find an almost flat sculpture, in which the loom structure is dismantled and reassembled according to a rationalist, geometric, and minimalist spirit. This type of exploration is also fueled by the materials used, which create a rigid structure. The artist's skill lies in creating a profound hermetic impression while still drawing on the memory of the original object. The work's remarkable aesthetic impact is also based on the chromatic balance created by the red background.

Maria Lai was born in Ulassai in 1919 and passed away in Cardedu in 2013. She trained first in Rome and then at the Venice Academy, where she studied with Arturo Martini. She returned to Sardinia, not without difficulty, in 1945. There, she renewed her friendship with Salvatore Cambosu and taught drawing in Cagliari's elementary schools. She returned to Rome in 1956 and, the following year, held her first solo exhibition at the L'Obelisco gallery. In 1971, at the Schneider Gallery in Rome, she exhibited her first Telai, a series that defined the next ten years and introduced her to the themes of Arte Povera. In the 1980s, she devoted herself to the first local projects that would lead to the most significant results of her work. Starting in the 1990s, she initiated a series of public art projects that, thanks to a programmatic vision, would, over time, transform Ulassai, her hometown, into a veritable open-air museum.

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