Omaggio a Maria Lai

In mid November of 2025 an exhibition of Sardinian (Italy) artist Maria Lai opened to the public at Magazzino Italian Art, located in Cold Spring, NY. Never before I heard of this artist prior to this exhibition, but as soon as I heard about this upcoming exhibition I started looking online for photo reproductions of her work, and I loved it. Once I saw her art on the walls at the museum, I then knew I wanted to do a project inspired by it. What I liked the most was this series of pieces in which she seems to be recreating book pages, but instead of printed letters she uses thread to sew the letters, which are actually just scribbles (Libri Cuciti or Stitched Books). The idea is visually beautiful and poetic. In the exhibition presentation, it is stated that “in the 1970s, Lai transitioned from traditional mediums to thread and stitched canvases, with her Telai (Looms) taking center stage. Inspired by Sardinian weaving traditions, these three-dimensional works elevate the loom into a cultural and artistic symbol”. In another series of work Maria employs ropes and strings attached to wooden frames or structures, creating beautiful panels that have an architectural or theatrical (scenic) quality. A large scale (physical and social) project she made in the early 1980’s. In this project “Lai created the event Legarsi alla montagna (Bound to the Mountain) in Ulassai, over three days. Blue ribbons totalling 27 km (17 mi) linked the houses in the village to each other and to the summit of Mount Gedili which overlooks the village. Residents connected their houses to their neighbours', sometimes with a bow or a loaf of bread to signify particular friendship, or tied taut to represent tensions between households. The project was recorded in a documentary named Maria Lai legare e collegare (Tie and connect).[3] The use of blue ribbon alludes to a local tale of a child whose life was saved when she ran out of a cave to chase a floating blue ribbon just before the cave collapsed in a landslip”. This last story of the girl in the cave seems to be some kind of local mythology. A more possible inspiration for Maria Lai seems to be Italo Calvino’s “Le città invisibili” (Invisible Cities), written ten years before Maria Lai’s performance. It was based on these three elements of Maria’s work (the sewn books, the string panels and the blue ribbon) that I designed the scenery for this photo shoot. The other element that I needed for the session was a model, a person to represent the artist. My friend Laetitia Ganem-Salcedo not only shared similar physical attributes with the artist, but was also very familiar with her work since she visited the exhibition at Magazzino on four different occasions! It was Laetitia who told me all about Maria Lai’s inspiration for her Libri Cuciti, a beautiful story I leave for you to discover. Laetitia was totally aware and mesmerized with the work of Maria Lai; so who better than her to occupy her space in these photos? Something I knew is that I didn’t want the subject to have a face, just to be perceived mostly as a cast shadow. Just hands and bare feet visible. Something else I knew about this project was that all the scenic elements would be backlit during the photo session. I used up to five off camera flashes to lit the scenery, and a hint of ambient (natural) light. The other thing I knew is that I wanted to desaturate all the color channels in these photos, with the exception of the blue. I wanted the blue ribbon to show! The photo session for these photos was difficult. Setting up the scenery and assembling the lights takes time! But the worst was avoiding glare from the lights that were placed in the opposite direction to the camera lens. After just an hour into the session, I was ready to wrap up! But we actually ended in the two hour time frame which is my default time for a photoshoot. I cannot thank my friend and videographer/photographer Natasha Scully enough for her unconditional help and support, not only during this photo session but also on a good number of previous photo sessions I have done in the past! Natasha: THANK YOU!!! It is pretty obvious that this project is dedicated to Maria Lai, but I also wish to make it obvious that I dedicate it as well to Natasha, without whom it wouldn’t be impossible! While I was writing these notes, I had a phone conversation with Laetitia and exchanged some impressions about yesterday’s session and the selected photos for this album. There are things I didn’t do that I would like to do, and since we still have the scenery, the model and the desire to do more (and perhaps better), we will do a recap photo session in the near future. So this is not a finished album! For the next one, I’ll be sketching the shots I want to capture. I would like to be more precise and specific. This is just Part One of my Omaggio a Maria Lai! Fino ad allora!