Poppy capsule, vanitas

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I use the mark left by the poppy capsule as a sort of natural pixel to draw maps and a bestiary of sleeping animals.
An open cycle, a ritual work marked by time and seasons, which start again at every blooming season.

Since 2008 I have been collecting the capsules around my studio, in the Tuscan countryside, fragmented and far from its idealized image, where spontaneous plants go on growing like a persistence in the uncultivated spaces of memory.
Each capsule is a natural matrix different from the others.

  1. The harvest
  2. Caterina Sbrana, Vanitas, poppy capsules on canvas, cm 220×200, 2011 photo credit Gianluca Paoletti
  3. Caterina Sbrana, Vanitas, poppy capsules on canvas, cm 220×200, 2011 photo credit Gianluca Paoletti
  4. Caterina Sbrana,Vanitas, detail, photo credit Gianluca Paoletti
  5. detail of the working process
  6. Caterina Sbrana,Vanitas, poppy capsules pressed on japanese paper, pigment, 90×140 cm, 2013
  7. Caterina Sbrana, Vanitas, poppy capsules pressed on japanese backed paper, black ink, cm 160×150, 2015
  8. detail of the execution of a drawing with ink
  9. Caterina Sbrana, Black dog, poppy capsules pressed on paper, black ink, cm 20×30, 2016
  10. Caterina Sbrana, Vanitas, poppy capsules pressed on canvas, black ink, cm 120×100, detail, 2018