Emma Hart, winner of the sixth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, presents her new large artwork Mamma Mia! at Collezione Maramotti, where it will enter its permanent collection, after being shown at Whitechapel Gallery, London. The artist’s installation at the Collection shows some interesting variations compared to the London’s exhibition, based on the specific features of the site.

The installation consists of a family of large ceramic heads, suggesting a dialogue with one other. Each sculpture is jug-like in shape: the spout mimics a nose and the opening a mouth. Produced by the artist in Faenza alongside ceramic artisans, each sculpture is glazed incorporating motifs, such as the speech bubble. The interior space of the heads is filled with vivid patterns, designed and hand-painted by Hart after researching the designs and practice of the Italian tradition of maiolica.
Mamma Mia! also represents the culmination of an investigation into pattern: visual patterns, and patterns of psychological behaviour, how to design then rupture these and the ruminations in between. The space between viewer and object is key, as ever in Hart’s work, and is charged with the artist’s particularly personal take on her experiences in Italy: the heat, light and colour, language and family dynamics in an unfamiliar setting.

Mamma Mia! will be also on show at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in spring 2018.

For further information: collezionemaramotti.org/en/exhibition-detail/-/emma-hart—mamma-mia