Tura Oliveira
Haruspex
2024
reclaimed fabric, cotton, wool, jeans, staples
440 x 120 x 30,5 cm
Maddalena Penitente (after Baglione)
2024
graphite on dyed linen tablecloth, found fabrics, hand dyed silk, glass and stone beads, cast aluminum
204 x 217 cm
Tura Oliveira, Abbey Scholar in Painting at the BSR 2023/24, presents two works made on and with fabric. Haruspex, is a site-specific installation developed especially for the exhibition, influenced by the frescoes of Giotto and Raphael and installed wrapping around a column in the gallery. The central image depicts an alien insect pulling out the entrails of a serpent woman, referencing the artist's overlapping interest in the objects of Estrucan haruspicy, and the visual relationship between tentacles and bowels. On the right side of the column is a scene of a saint in a cave influenced by images of Maria Magdalene penitente and Santa Rosalia. The installation uses discarded clothing, blankets, and sheets found at Porta Portese to create a bunched textile mural that distorts the form of the column and alludes to bas relief narratives embedded in architecture. Based on Giovanni Baglione's painting depicting Mary Magdalene in the Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Maddalena Penitente (after Baglione) was made on a salvaged vintage tablecloth and depicts Magdalene as a serpentine creature.
