Clarina Bezzola

My work is an illustration of my inner-self.

Through the years I’ve extensively researched the various aspects of protective skins and barriers. My study increasingly progressed inward, towards the psychology of protection. One technique came to involve the use of pleasant flower patterns. This distractive camouflage is aimed at diminishing the transparency of my forms and preoccupies the viewer with the object’s surface rather than it’s vulnerable inner life.

I work with contrasts. Juxtaposing contrasting materials, effects and shapes communicates the sense of contradiction and urgency of our mental situation. Although my wearable pieces speak the language of clothing they in fact aim to achieve the opposite, which is to expose the individual’s most vulnerable aspects on both, a psychological and a physical level.

My work is of my body. Self-referential forms are cast from the prototype of my own physicality. They reside within the space of exhibition, yet they should always be thought of as part of me.

Performance became a natural evolution. Through the use of my voice–which over the years I've been developing through classical training–my pieces are coming to life like never before. The viewer is witnessing an event, which happens in the moment and can never be identically recreated.