Threads as blood vessels leading to the beating heart of each of us, made of time, memories and all our frailties as human beings. This is the idea behind “Non siamo fiori”, the artistic project by Drunkenrabbit, pseudonym of Linda Ferrari, which will be on show on 28 and 29 September at the ADI Design Museum in Piazza Compasso d'Oro, Milan.
Born in Brescia in 1986, Ferrari grew up in her maternal grandmother's house, surrounded by art, literature and attics full of old toys, falling asleep listening to the Iliad, the Odyssey, Wilde, Andersen and adventurous tales about her family. Fairy tales, family stories and memories have been the inspiration for Drunkenrabbit's entire artistic output, including his latest project.
What will be exhibited at the weekend at ADI is both a multimedia work and an embroidery on paper. Drunkenrabbit involved 53 women from all over the world to discover what made them who they are. The artist then wove, through editing, all the videos received into a single 60-minute film.
He then asked the participants to identify themselves with a thread and a type of fabric. These threads were then used for hand embroidery, so that the wefts of all the women would meet and merge. The title “We are not flowers” contrasts with the rhetoric that tells of women only as objects to be handled with care.
First of all a curiosity: where does the stage name Drunkenrabbit come from?
From the first part of my artistic experience where I was always obsessed with this white rabbit, as a fan of Alice in Wonderland, but a bit underground.
Where did the idea for this project come from?
The inspiration goes back to a story my great-grandmother used to tell me. It was a sort of Italian Cinderella in which a very poor girl had to go to the fateful ball and all the villagers gave her a coloured thread to sew her dress. I imagined this crazy dress, all colourful, beautiful.
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Like her, you also sewed (literally) the stories that women from all over the world gave you.
I've always liked to involve others and do things together, but during the lockdown I felt this urge to connect with people and I finally had the time. So I dusted off friendships I hadn't heard from in years, or wrote to women I followed on Instagram and admired. The prompt was to tell me the fabric of their existence and each of them sent me a video, explaining who she was and what made her who she was, in 60 seconds.
Not easy at all.
No, because we are all a complicated web of plots, of layers. That's why it was a good moment of reflection for all of them. I then told each of them to represent themselves with a thread, to sew it together with the others, and that was not easy either.
These threads led you elsewhere.
Yes, one girl told me “I am a golden thread, but pure gold.” and I had to find someone who could work gold like a thread. Through a friend I met Giovanni Corvaja, a master goldsmith, who pierces the gold into threads so fine that they can be embroidered.
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Going back to the stories, is there one that particularly struck you?
Yes, there was a Lebanese girl who wanted to participate in the project by sending me a video of her life after the explosion at the port of Beirut. So although her house was destroyed and people in the street, she took back her birthday cake or one of her workouts at the gym.
Another one, from San Francisco, always super cool on her Instagram profile, sent me a beautiful black and white video of her blinking. In the description she explained that it was because of Tourette's syndrome. Something you couldn't tell from the pictures he was posting. It was very powerful.
What does the interweaving of the threads represent for you?
Definitely the power of connection. I mean, look what I have created with the help of 53 women, just think what we could do in other areas if we really all decided to row on the same side. So that thread is a concept that can be applied to anything, bearing in mind that art can also have a civic value.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
Images courtesy of Linda Ferrari
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