Testo in italiano

  presents:

Artist Talk

Clementina Iuppa, crocheter

“Art is the sharing of emotions, the sublimation of the Human being, what connects us to the Other from oneself”

Both crochet and shawl making are lost in the mists of time.

The first crocheted hats were found over 3000 years ago and were made of wool.

Here are some crochet hooks: iron, plastic.

The first crochet hooks were made of bone or wood.

These are paired shawl and bag.

There are the colors of Sicily.

Our grandmothers also used shawls to seduce.

It took two months to make.

It’s triangular, although a shawl doesn’t have to be triangular.

I prefer the triangular shape, it’s more meditative for me, triangular like Sicily.

For me, embroidering is entering into meditation.

Even in sad moments of my life crocheting relaxed me.

I have been crocheting since I was ten years old.

I started with shawls and then moved on to making bags as well.

They’re made of wool with these antique doilies.

I’ll show you this one, there are my roses.

I put the fur in here.

Come, look.

I also make these things, they take years, they’re blankets.

These are like clutch bags a little bit bigger.

I’m wearing this shawl with its bag.

Let’s take some pictures.

Our Sicilian grandmothers’ shawl, which only covered the shoulders, was shaped like a crescent moon.

The bigger one, the actual shawl is triangular.

I love winter, I only use wool.

I love black because I am a daughter of Etna but I am Sicilian and so I brighten this black with the bright colors of our land.

Often, before making a shawl, I imagine it at night.

This one, for example, is a real madness, a free form, many processes to create the triangle.

First you make the daisy, then you surround it with black and so on and so forth.

In some small villages around Sicily you can still find the lady with a chair in front of the door and a shawl on.

Beautiful.

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Clementina on Sicilian Artisan Foundation: please, go

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The creative people of Trinacria

Sicilian Artisan Foundation (S.A.F.) is a project  to sustain the Sicilian creativity, over all to support the artisans and artists.

The objective of S.A.F is both to safeguard the traditions and ancient crafts of the people of Sicily, and to sustain economically the Artisans and the Artists, both the real ethno-anthropologists of the country.

The writers transcribing down through memory to the pen; artisans use their hands and flair.

Both use their hearts.

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Author: Giovanni Vallone, Cultural Department of Splendid Sicily

Translation and narrator: Giovanna Battaglia, Cultural Department of Splendid Sicily