Taking over our blog today is BA Illustration student Mathilda Della Torre. Half French, half Italian, Matilda lives in London now, where she says she feels at home. Here she talks about the ideas around her final piece and gives us a glimpse of the work she’ll be exhibiting during the Undergraduate Summer Show 2017.
Hi, my name is Mathilda and I have just finished my Illustration BA at Camberwell, so I wanted to share with you some images of my work and give you a preview of what you will see at my degree show. I have spent most of this year exploring the idea of home and how we imprint ourselves on spaces.
‘Chair and Shadows’, work by Mathilda Della Torre
I was greatly influenced by an essay called ‘In Praise of Shadows’ (1977) written by Tanizaki Junichiro, which discussed how the Japanese culture values shadows and appreciates darkness. On the contrary, I have been taught to always be on the quest for a brighter light, and always wanting to “dispel the shadows in the furthest corners”. Nonetheless, perhaps, we should embrace darkness more and enhance its beauty.
I worked on a series of prints titled ‘The Shadows We Cast’, which visualised this eternal yet ephemeral process. To create a home, we imprint ourselves on a space, through the objects we own and our presence, leaving a mark on these places. Similarly, light does this as well by projecting shadows onto surfaces and therefore appropriating itself of a space.
‘The Shadows We Cast’, work by Mathilda Della Torre
‘The Shadows We Cast II’, work by Mathilda Della Torre
I used the medium of printmaking to explore this idea because of the way we make a mark on a metal plate or on a silk-screen to produce an etching or a screen-print. In some way, I thought this related to the idea of light imprinting itself on a surface through shadows.
I will be exhibiting this series of prints at the Camberwell degree show and would love for you to come to the Private View on the 19 of June to discover all of our work. I am also part of the Now What Collective and we have organised an exhibition at the Menier Gallery. I hope to see you at this private view as well on the 18 of July!
‘A Room’, work by Mathilda Della Torre
‘Tonight’s Shadow’, work by Mathilda Della Torre
Related Links