Planisferio, Europa and Asia Triptych

Planisferio, Europa and Asia Triptych, 2013
From the Cartographies series
Embroidery on canvas
Overall size: 97 H x 393 W cm.
Individual size:
Planisferio: 88 H x 130 W cm.
Europa: 94 H x 133 W cm.
Asia: 97 H x 130 W cm.
Unframed

In the mid-2000s, Ana Seggiaro made her first small-scale collage works on paper. Starting from pages of books, maps, and scores, she carries out the first series intervened through embroidery and painting. In these works she finds the universe of cartography, using maps as supports for the construction of imaginary geographies. This search leads her to tackle larger works. Thus, she recovers old school maps worn by use, where the black rubber acquires a broken texture, generating a topography like that of skin dried by the sun. She intervenes in these maps with abstract figures and images of paper airplanes that fly over unknown landscapes.

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Tending relations between geographically distant cultures and, at the same time, stressing the temporal gap that separates them, is the meaning of Ana Seggiaro's work, based on the engravings of Alberto Dürer, Piranesi, and Albinus. For the artist, European art is the paradigm that she has built, from that training she has resignified her works, submitting them to her consideration and leaving an embroidered mark that marks a different path from the one originally created. In the process of creation, she takes the images that interest her, investigates their history, and answers questions such as what the artist wanted to say or if she simply made it by chance. The next thing is to photograph it and modify it digitally, either by adding color or removing details to create a collage. Once the final image has been decided, a print is made on fine art canvas to begin the hand embroidery process. In the last year, in addition to embroidering, she has decided to paint over the image.

Ana Seggiaro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Initially pictorial in nature, in its different stages, her work was exploring and incorporated new materials and media that complemented the oil and engraving that are the basis of its origin. She graduated in drawing and engraving from the Prilidiano Pueyrredón National School of Fine Arts in 1988.