BOOK LAUNCH IN SEPTEMBER 2020
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I N I T I A T I O N , pencil paper collage , 2011
©SIMI NINATI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Fashion and fabric, the female figure, and her transformation with cloth, lead me to investigate the process of weaving, sewing and draping and it´s symbolic function of transformation. In 2011, from the practice of keeping a diary of drawings came the idea to make an artist book of my poetry and images.
AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE -
ON THE OTHER SIDE
2020 contemporary limited artist edition (200 copies) designed by Cleber Rafael de Campos, signed and numbered by Simi Ninati.
It is a bi-lingual book which includes some of my drawings from 1995-2011. Telling a cyclical tale, it was originally designed in 2011 as a handmade leporello that can be read from front to back and vice versa. I liked the idea to encourage the reader to view the story in a different way, to discover an intuitive reading by opening the pages at random.*
Aspects of dream work, female identity and psychoanalytic ideas of the double are woven together to explore and interpret possibilities of femininity. The drawings mirror my specific interest in ancient egyptian art, the iconography of sacred code, metaphor... I search for holistic poetic vocabulatory.
The ancient egyptian Book Coming Forth by Day, also known as Book of the Dead is a model attempt to encode timeless wisdom and served as my inspiration. A very personal story of transformation and overcoming individual crisis is told, only to realise it is the hero´s journey and everyones story...*
[synopsis english]
Enter a world beyond space and time, where the magic of words serves to unlock secrets of the soul. A cyclical story recounts life experiences and dream life, overcoming emotional despair and alienation. This journey delves the depths of darkness and reaches for starlight... A quest for knowledge, soul retrieval and human survival is unfolding.
Like spells,
drawings and words describe an emotional or spiritual state of being. Drawing and writing, and subsequently the experience of reading, act as witness and catalysts of change, expressing new personal knowledge. Contemplation leads to transformation. Words and images are recognised as instruments of creation.
Mystery and magic symbols are used not merely as decorative poetic devices but play role in a symbolic structure to tell a story for all who seek.*
In 2012, I did not finish the book...In 2019 I started the process of what I now call spiritual archeology... Like in archeological excavations, 'dig out / bring to light' my previously abandoned artworks. I finalised the text in early 2020, integrating all experiences which lead to writing and drawings. The book was supposed to be published in June 2020, due to Corona pandemic it took longer to finish.
[Synopsis Deutsch]
Betrete eine Welt jenseits von Raum und Zeit, wo die Magie der Wörter dazu dient, Geheimnisse der Seele zu lüften. Eine zyklische Geschichte erzählt von Lebenserfahrungen und Traumleben, vom Überwinden emotionaler Verzweiflung und Entfremdung. Sie führt in die Tiefe der Dunkelheit und hinauf zum Sternenlicht... Eine fortwährende Suche nach Erkenntnis, Seelenrückführung und menschlichem Überleben.
©SIMI NINATI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
* This text is the edited version of a text first published online on my Blog 0-0-be, 7 September 2012. My blog entries ended in 2013 and the blog is no longer available.