Contributed by Adriana Furlong / Emma Helene Moriconi’s solo show “you and i are made from a worm eaten wood,” up earlier this summer at Galerie Timonier, prompted viewers to consider natural processes, large and small, more closely than usual. It was an interesting approach that seemed worth a conversation.
Adriana Furlong: Tell me about the title of your show, “you and i are made from a worm eaten wood.”
Emma Moriconi: I came across Etel Adnan’s poem Manifestations of the Voyage while I was finishing up the work on view this summer. She writes, for instance, “I love rains which carry desires / to / oceans.” I aspire to capture the agency and power of natural phenomena as she does. That’s what I’m driving at with the title.
graphite on tracing paper
14 x 12 inches. Courtesy of Galerie Timonier.
graphite on tracing paper
14 x 12 inches. Courtesy of Galerie Timonier.
graphite on tracing paper
14 x 12 inches. Courtesy of Galerie Timonier.
AF: You approach fine art from a background in curation studies. How do you see curating in the broader world?
EM: In my final thesis, I wove together the history of science and technical imagery to explore how practices of visualizing, documenting, and categorizing nature have shaped perceptions and understandings of it. I want to explore this process in my artwork.
AF: Your work in the recent exhibition is densely layered, lacking a clear figure-ground relationship, and appears to undergo constant metamorphosis. This is particularly evident in your graphite drawings on mylar, where the layering causes slight disorientation as lines shift in and out of focus. The interplay between clarity and obscureness evokes microscopic images, doesn’t it?
EM: Yes. I think a lot about representation versus presentation. From fine art to natural history, there is a responsibility to tell a story. With the development of the microscope in the 1590s, scientific illustration became prominent and lens-based instruments allowed for visualization beyond the human eye’s capacity. The microscope also influenced traditional Western painting, which until then had placed viewers at a calculated distance from the object of their perception. I am not interested in hyper-realistic representations. Instead, I intentionally blur the line between foreground and background, asking viewers to consider what they are seeing more deeply.
Right: The Veins of Red Iddingsite, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. Courtesy of Galerie Timonier.
AF: How has your relationship to science developed?
EM: When I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder as a teenager, I wanted to understand what was happening in my body on a molecular level. Science was no longer this abstract thing; biology became personal. I saw images of the insides of my internal organs and was astonished. This year, I had a few medical examinations and found myself looking at a lot of x-rays and ultrasounds while finishing the recent work. My mother’s heart surgery also had a huge impact on my understanding and appreciation of modern science and medical technology.
AF: So, in a way, you have turned your body inside out and invited the anonymous gaze.
EM: Yes, there is something intimate and vulnerable about seeing the inner workings of your body. I feel almost blessed, despite having these minor medical issues, to have scrutinized the workings of my bones and organs and developed certain feelings and emotions associated with that. Maybe others can appreciate it, too.
“Emma Helene Moriconi: you and I are made from a worm eaten wood,” curated by Delfina Pattacini. Galerie Timonier, 246 West Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY. June 7–July 20, 2024.
About the author: Adriana Furlong is an artist and writer based in New York. Her work uses symbols that allegorize and translate labor into urban space. She has contributed reviews to The Brooklyn Rail, Whitehot Magazine, and Dovetail Magazine, among others. She recently participated in the 2023–2024 Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program in New York.
