Unbroken Thread[s]

Plasters (Texts):

The movement of turning pages of a book was translated into the circular form, which is ongoing, endless, and leaves narratives unbroken.

The words inscribed speak of the unknown that is always here, but needs to be unearthed.

and a pale shadow does escape the vanquished pyres...

ROMA-Ostia (340N19), 2019
Plaster, wax, paint.
1″x 1″

Text(s)

e se nessuno si ricorda?
and what if no one remembers?

Luradque evictos effugit umbra rogos.

shades have their existence: death does not bring
everything to an end,
and a pale shadow does escape the vanquished pyres.

(Teresa Carson, “Visit to an Extinct City.”)
(Propertius, Elegies, tr. René de Nicolay)

ROMA-Ostia (84N19), 2019

Text(s):

velina incrostazione
del nostro mondo sul nudo universe

(flimsy crust of our world
over the naked universe.)

Intrusive roots crack tufa blocks

ed era pura luce (and it was pure light)

E, come allure, scompaiono cantando
(And now as then they disappear, singing)

(Pier Paolo Pasolini, “La Resistenza E La Sua Luce,” “Chiusa La Fiesta…,” and “Il Pianto Della Scavatrice,” Roman Poems, tr. Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Francesca Valente.)

(Teresa Carson, “Visit to an Extinct City.”)

ROMA-Ostia (21A19), 2019

Text(s):

order slips into order of a different kind

What if no one remembers?

e se nessuno si ricorda?

Intrusive roots crack tufa blocks.

and yet, and yet remains…

(Teresa Carson, “Visit to an Extinct City.”)

ROMA-Ostia (00019), 2019

Text(s):

He separated sky and earth,
and earth and waves, and he defined
pure air and thicker air. Unraveling
these things from the blind heap, assigning each
its place-distinct-he linked them all in peace.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Allen Mandelbaum)

ROMA-Ostia (00019), 2019

Text(s):

salimmo sù, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch’i’ vidi de le code belle
che porta ‘l ciel, per un pertugio tondo.
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stele.

We climbed up, he first and I behind him,
far enough to see, through a round opening,
a few of those fair things the heaven bear.
Then we came forth, to see again the stars.

order slips into order of a different kind

(Dante, Inferno, tr. by R. & J. Hollander)
(Carson, “VTAEC“)

ROMA-Ostia (00019), 2019

Text(s):

my purpose is to tell of bodies which have been transformed
into shapes of a different kind. You heavenly powers,
since you were responsible for those changes as for all else,
look favorably on my attempts
and spin an unbroken thread of verse

A l’alta fantasia qui mancò possa;
ma già volgeva il mio disio e ‘l velle,
sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa,
l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

Here my exalted vision lost its power.
But now my will and my desire, like wheels revolving
with an even motion, were turning with
the Love that moves the sun and all the other stars.

unbroken threads…

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, tr. René de Nicolay)
(Dante, Paradiso, Canto, tr. R. & J. Hollander)

ROMA-Ostia (20_0720), 2020
Plaster, wax, paint.
1″x 1″