Fondazione Giorgio Griffa presents D1–D5, an exhibition by Giorgio Griffa and Simon Starling articulated in five stages, each placing in dialogue works by the two artists. Five dialogues that in some cases stem from shared projects and direct collaborations, and in others from formal, material and conceptual affinities. Together, they create resonances and intertwinings, open up grounds for comparison, and suggest new directions of inquiry.
An exchange rich in correspondences, symmetries and contrasts, which also takes shape through a “ping-pong” of texts written by Griffa and Starling to accompany each stage of the exhibition.
The collaboration between Griffa and Starling began in 2017. Simon was struck by rare Japanese handcrafted brushes made for urushi lacquer masters, using the hair of Ama pearl divers — particularly compact thanks to their long immersion in the sea and the absence of chemical detergents. He sent the brushes to Giorgio for him to use. This gave rise to three large works on paper, which Simon then “annotated” with a text on the glass panels in which they were framed.
These three four-handed works are exhibited on the occasion of D1–D5, connecting different institutions and places: Noise (Annotated) on view in the Art Space of the Foundation, Oblique 3 (Annotated) on display at MAO – Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin, and Golden Ratio (Annotated) presented from November 5 at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York.
Among the eleven works on view, in addition to Noise (Annotated), are two installations by Starling — Head to Toe and As he buffs… — which reflect his interest in connections, production processes, and the very nature and potential of collaboration. Also on view are two large canvases by Griffa, both dated 2025: Disordine PO and Autoxylopyrocycloboros. The latter, part of the Alter ego cycle, is a tribute to Starling’s multifaceted work of the same name (film, slides, prints…), represented in the exhibition by a burned print. A more extensive version of Autoxylopyrocycloboros — comprising 38 colour slides and a projector — is part of the collection of GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin.
Preview of the “ping-pong” written for Dialogue D1
G. The first cell that multiplied, at the beginning of life, was an act of disorder in the previous order, and so on until it became fish, ants, elephants.
S. Head to Toe is a quiet cacophony of small disorders, an echo chamber of material and dimensional mutations. Tree resin becomes black lacquer. The trunk, from which that resin came, is cut to the height of the craftsman who, using a brush made from the hair of a Japanese Ama (pearl diver), applied that dark lacquer to a vitrine. The lacquered vitrine now contains a gold bar. The gold bar, which has been stretched to the length of the tree trunk, radiates in the light from a handmade bulb. The bulbs tungsten filament, also the length of that stretched gold bar, that tree trunk and that craftsman, illuminates the craftsman’s now oddly-heavy, cast tungsten sandals. Gold colours glass red, and so on. Making is embodied, head to toe.
There seem to be echoes of these exchanges between elements, these knock-on effects, in Disordine PO?
G. The color, the brush, the fabric, the signs, the unexpected, my hand, time, what happens on the canvas, they are all protagonists.
S. The brush very much became the protagonist of the three collaborative works we made together in 2017, a brush, evocatively made from the hair of Ama women – hair perfectly suited to the critical last layer of urushi lacquer. Seemingly unable to act with this highly-charged object myself, I decided to invite you to use the brush and the result was a group of three very distinctive sets of signs or codes. I then annotated your ink drawings with a further text, reconnecting the brush/tool to its origin story. This for me was a quintessential collaboration, full of trust and generosity. The brush knew in whose hands it wanted to be.
