Crosswinds - Venti Trasversali (by Ellen Driscoll)

Crosswinds – Venti Trasversali: an exhibit by Ellen Driscoll at the Fisiocritici Museum

Crosswinds – Venti Trasversali is an exhibition of works by New York artist Ellen Driscoll, created during her residency at the Siena Art Institute. The exhibition preview (by invite) was on November 11, 2016, on occasion of the International Day of Tolerance. The official inauguration, open to the general public, was on November 16. The exhibiton closed on January 31, 2017.

The Drawings

The series of drawings Crosswinds – Venti Trasversali began with an investigation into the historical process of making charcoal in Tuscany. Four indigenous trees – oak, chestnut, pine, and arbutus – are used in this ancient process. Going beyond the use of charcoal for cooking and heating, Ellen Driscoll was interested in how the material is now also used globally to extract toxins and as a healing corrective.

Therefore in these works the American artist represents the filtering properties of charcoal with molecular sieves. For example, in one drawing maps of countries appear to be caught in these molecular filters. In another, this structure becomes a reference to the decorative tiles of the Siena cathedral floor.

Crosswinds Migrations

While thinking about the healing and filtering properties of charcoal, the artist reflected on an even more complex phenomenon: migration. In Italy, Ellen Driscoll was interested in the Albania migrations of the early ’90s. Many immigrants found employment in the agricultural sector, also involving them in the charcoal production process.

The result is a circular reflection: charcoal, used to heal people, was created from native plant species. Today, it is produced by the labor of migrants from neighboring countries. And all of this happens amidst an ecosystem of many plant species which have come from elsewhere.

With these and other more recent migration events as a backdrop, some of Ellen Driscoll’s drawings create a matrix in which the indigenous plant connected to charcoal production is combined with a plant that has arrived from another country and taken deep root, adapting to its new ecosystem.

And while in some cases, as for the wisteria depicted in one of the drawings, we know how the plant arrived in Europe, in others, such as the wildflowers that grow at the Siena railway station, the story is different. The plants may have arrived as seeds dropped by birds or even transported in the soles of shoes that have crossed borders.