What does the future hold? We must create the future we wish to see, Break the Mold, undergo Reprogramming, construct a new Fondamenta for ourselves and our children one Brick Block Tick Tock at a time. Our culture is dominated by Alphas who Flex their power for the sheer pleasure of being in control. These years of Quarantine have offered us the opportunity of reassessing the changes we wish to see in the world. Perhaps we need Bella Ciao to herald A Matriarchy Modern, a fresh start built by and for women. Perhaps we need to turn our backs on capitalism and the ceaseless insistence upon production, perhaps answers lay under our feet as we walk on soil or on Terrazzo floor.
Living in New York, I downed coffee after coffee—“An Americano for the American!”—simply to survive, to keep moving. I began to Burn Out. Roaring in Silence, I went through a Grey Period, during which everything I touched seemed lifeless and turned to White Powder White Stone. I found a Blood Feather of a Northern Flicker and saw myself in that beautiful, gentle, broken bird, whose home was stolen away by a Copper Nail. I realized that I needed to get out. Peering at the Faint Lights in the distance, I turned to Tarot Tarocchi for answers.
I returned to my grandparents’ home in the Italian countryside, relearning Seasonal patterns, discovering the places of their youth—climbing into the Alpine foothills, diving into the waters of Sardinia, and following Bodies of Water to their source. I explored Veneto, visiting Churches throughout the countryside and considering how their conception of the Holy—through comparison and difference—helped me understand my own. Gradually, I learned to listen to myself, looking to Mirroring in nature and the Animals I Love to understand what I felt in my heart. I strove to become W/hole and to give light to others. At last, The Stone Has Shattered and I Can Breathe.
When I turned Thirty-Five in 2021, that checkpoint in my own biological cycle reasserted the wishes I had for my life. I would like to experience motherhood, to see a child Being Born into this world. This moment also prompted me to reflect on my youth—drawing Mickey and DaVinci, watching Pinocchio. Not all of my childhood memories are happy. I was led astray by Nosy Noses or troubled by Nightmares. I learned to comfort myself through Humming or making art. In the years since, I have striven to look for different models of care, A Likeness for my own dream of family. Only through kindness and Words of Endearment for ourselves and for each other will we build a better life. So, Dimmi, amore—tell me, my love. I am listening.
JENNA BASSO PIETROBON
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Nove di Bassano, Italy
Florence, Italy
New York, USA
The idea of family holds a strange pressure for me—the assumption that you share interests, beliefs, and ambitions, simply because you share genetic code or, in timeworn parlance, “blood.”
ReadArt can be a conduit for pure feeling and spiritual symbolism, while also engaging in a Modernist revision of contemporary life.
ReadFor years, the market has instrumentalized the insecurities of men and women alike, preying on the desire to achieve some unattainable ideal.
ReadReinterpreting mountainous landscapes as alien topographies, I wonder if this is also what drew my grandfather Onorino to the Alps— a love not for the familiar but for the unknown.
ReadCoffee—the drink that enabled and continues to perpetuate a homogenized and capitalist culture.
ReadThis series of works challenge the viewer to acknowledge the parity between human and animal beings.
ReadAs the workers began to see that their struggle was not just with the farmers, but with the government as well, “Bella ciao” expanded in use becoming—between 1943 and 1945—a rallying cry for the anti-fascist resistance.
ReadI reflect upon my body’s struggle with metal toxicity and my efforts to rebuild the ruin that I had become.
ReadBodies of Water traces part of the water cycle from icy lakes replenished by snowy mountain runoff to streams as they become rivers and the rivers as they flow out to sea.
ReadWithin the world of ceramics, the plaster mold is used to make repetitive forms – all targeted towards mass-production and mass-consumption. As an artist I like to question how we produce and consume, therefore, I use these molds to create one-of-a-kind forms instead.
ReadBrick Block, Tick Tock suggests alternative methodologies for constructing our homes and lives. This project draws upon hereditary knowledge, looking to the legacies of my paternal grandfather, stonemason and builder Sergio Pietrobon, and maternal grandfather, ceramicist Onorino Basso, for inspiration and knowledge of these crafts.
ReadCopper Nail and the Rondine looks at humankind’s relationship to nature through the lens of copper, weaving a web of material confusions that demonstrate our growing alienation from the earth.
ReadThe title of the collection is an invocation of the common Italian saying, used to prompt another person to speak: “Dimmi Amore,” “tell me, my love.”
ReadBuilding foundations and encouraging community growth through a ceramics school, production studio, and residency program.
ReadIn 2013, several friends and family members passed away in quick succession. These events prompted me to consider death, the fragility of life, and the living conditions of those who are old or in hospice.
ReadI often felt alienated by my family and their different ideas about who I should be and how I should act. Sometimes, I would imagine the story of my birth and childhood as though I really were some otherworldly creature, made of fundamentally different stuff.
ReadA work about the fundamental sociality of speaking and hearing, even when the person you are addressing is yourself.
ReadAs a child, I loved to draw Mickey Mouse, to chart his simple, interlacing geometries in thin pencil lines.
ReadMirroring considers the origins of international trade, charting its history from the Silk Road that connected the West with the Middle East and Asia, to the present day when cardboard boxes deliver products from halfway around the world.
ReadPeering at Faint Lights in the Distance materializes a series of visions that I had in 2014 under the influence of ayahuasca, visions which collided different parts of my life and revealed linkages that had previously been obscure.
ReadReflect on the cruel symmetry of using the image of a puppet to attempt to control the masses—enslaving them by telling them that they will be freed from bondage.
ReadCoronavirus has caused fear and loss. But it has also prompted us to reflect upon the importance of human life, cultural connection, and collective memory. This moment, which mirrors those that have come before, offers an opportunity for a contemporary form of humanism and social rebirth.
ReadThis performance score and video work documents my process of unlearning years of internalized insults, of recognizing my own power and resolving that I won’t let anyone take it away.
ReadI began this series of paintings after I started meditating, reflecting upon the way that this practice prompted me to explore my own mind as one would an architecture.
ReadBased on research that I conducted while visiting Sardinia in August 2020, this body of work comprises photographs and journal entries made during my time there, as well as a series of sculptures derived from the little fish that gave the island its name.
ReadA collection of photographs, ceramic lamps, plates, food, postcards and video work that draw on art historical precedents for using fruits and vegetables as memento mori.
Read“And the weight in my stomach feels like a stone—a stone l’ve been trying to chisel at for years now, to remove from my body so I can finally, maybe for the first time since I was a child, take a deep full breath and feel freedom.”
ReadI know people who look almost religiously to the tarot deck for wisdom. I have never been that person, but I do see the cards—like any form of projection—as a means of clarifying subconscious feelings.
ReadItaly is famous for the rich minerals of its soil, which have been used to pigment works of art for hundreds of years.
ReadThis work draws upon the idea of being a “black sheep”—standing out from others, being unique—as a means of escaping from the nightmare. We don’t need to fall back to sleep—we need to wake up.
ReadThrough correspondences between positive shapes and negative voids, this collection metaphorically explores my personal search for psychological well being.
ReadDrawing on memories of the Venetian stories that my grandparents told me as I grew up, this collection of sculptures collide elements of the narratives as if trying—and failing—to recreate the same arc.
ReadThese textual works are about the dialogic space of affection, which takes shape not only in verbal endearments but also in hearing another when they speak.
ReadThe idea of family holds a strange pressure for me—the assumption that you share interests, beliefs, and ambitions, simply because you share genetic code or, in timeworn parlance, “blood.”
ReadArt can be a conduit for pure feeling and spiritual symbolism, while also engaging in a Modernist revision of contemporary life.
ReadFor years, the market has instrumentalized the insecurities of men and women alike, preying on the desire to achieve some unattainable ideal.
ReadReinterpreting mountainous landscapes as alien topographies, I wonder if this is also what drew my grandfather Onorino to the Alps— a love not for the familiar but for the unknown.
ReadCoffee—the drink that enabled and continues to perpetuate a homogenized and capitalist culture.
ReadThis series of works challenge the viewer to acknowledge the parity between human and animal beings.
ReadAs the workers began to see that their struggle was not just with the farmers, but with the government as well, “Bella ciao” expanded in use becoming—between 1943 and 1945—a rallying cry for the anti-fascist resistance.
ReadI reflect upon my body’s struggle with metal toxicity and my efforts to rebuild the ruin that I had become.
ReadBodies of Water traces part of the water cycle from icy lakes replenished by snowy mountain runoff to streams as they become rivers and the rivers as they flow out to sea.
ReadWithin the world of ceramics, the plaster mold is used to make repetitive forms – all targeted towards mass-production and mass-consumption. As an artist I like to question how we produce and consume, therefore, I use these molds to create one-of-a-kind forms instead.
ReadBrick Block, Tick Tock suggests alternative methodologies for constructing our homes and lives. This project draws upon hereditary knowledge, looking to the legacies of my paternal grandfather, stonemason and builder Sergio Pietrobon, and maternal grandfather, ceramicist Onorino Basso, for inspiration and knowledge of these crafts.
ReadCopper Nail and the Rondine looks at humankind’s relationship to nature through the lens of copper, weaving a web of material confusions that demonstrate our growing alienation from the earth.
ReadThe title of the collection is an invocation of the common Italian saying, used to prompt another person to speak: “Dimmi Amore,” “tell me, my love.”
ReadBuilding foundations and encouraging community growth through a ceramics school, production studio, and residency program.
ReadIn 2013, several friends and family members passed away in quick succession. These events prompted me to consider death, the fragility of life, and the living conditions of those who are old or in hospice.
ReadI often felt alienated by my family and their different ideas about who I should be and how I should act. Sometimes, I would imagine the story of my birth and childhood as though I really were some otherworldly creature, made of fundamentally different stuff.
ReadA work about the fundamental sociality of speaking and hearing, even when the person you are addressing is yourself.
ReadAs a child, I loved to draw Mickey Mouse, to chart his simple, interlacing geometries in thin pencil lines.
ReadMirroring considers the origins of international trade, charting its history from the Silk Road that connected the West with the Middle East and Asia, to the present day when cardboard boxes deliver products from halfway around the world.
ReadPeering at Faint Lights in the Distance materializes a series of visions that I had in 2014 under the influence of ayahuasca, visions which collided different parts of my life and revealed linkages that had previously been obscure.
ReadReflect on the cruel symmetry of using the image of a puppet to attempt to control the masses—enslaving them by telling them that they will be freed from bondage.
ReadCoronavirus has caused fear and loss. But it has also prompted us to reflect upon the importance of human life, cultural connection, and collective memory. This moment, which mirrors those that have come before, offers an opportunity for a contemporary form of humanism and social rebirth.
ReadThis performance score and video work documents my process of unlearning years of internalized insults, of recognizing my own power and resolving that I won’t let anyone take it away.
ReadI began this series of paintings after I started meditating, reflecting upon the way that this practice prompted me to explore my own mind as one would an architecture.
ReadBased on research that I conducted while visiting Sardinia in August 2020, this body of work comprises photographs and journal entries made during my time there, as well as a series of sculptures derived from the little fish that gave the island its name.
ReadA collection of photographs, ceramic lamps, plates, food, postcards and video work that draw on art historical precedents for using fruits and vegetables as memento mori.
Read“And the weight in my stomach feels like a stone—a stone l’ve been trying to chisel at for years now, to remove from my body so I can finally, maybe for the first time since I was a child, take a deep full breath and feel freedom.”
ReadI know people who look almost religiously to the tarot deck for wisdom. I have never been that person, but I do see the cards—like any form of projection—as a means of clarifying subconscious feelings.
ReadItaly is famous for the rich minerals of its soil, which have been used to pigment works of art for hundreds of years.
ReadThis work draws upon the idea of being a “black sheep”—standing out from others, being unique—as a means of escaping from the nightmare. We don’t need to fall back to sleep—we need to wake up.
ReadThrough correspondences between positive shapes and negative voids, this collection metaphorically explores my personal search for psychological well being.
ReadDrawing on memories of the Venetian stories that my grandparents told me as I grew up, this collection of sculptures collide elements of the narratives as if trying—and failing—to recreate the same arc.
ReadThese textual works are about the dialogic space of affection, which takes shape not only in verbal endearments but also in hearing another when they speak.
Read