The “Golden Cages” or the ties and mental constraints that block and limit us in our relations with others for fear of being hurt. The different fears create defences that are the subject of interpretation in this new cycle of works by artist Micaela Legnaioli. As in a journey deeper and deeper into the self, the artist Legnaioli, endowed with a great sensitivity and a very high artistic level, analyses our fears and defence cages in their visual aspect with very refined results.
The Golden Cages are nothing more than ephemeral defences that give an appearance of protection, but which soon turn into constrictive cages that suffocate the individual, restricting his freedom of expression and the ability to love and be loved; there are ways out that can be taken to free oneself from these constraints. The artist proposes a visual-subjective interpretation after in-depth psychological reflection on these themes.
His sculptures have a twofold reading: on a first reading, one appreciates the cage-wrap that imprisons it and which is painted in different, precious metallic colours; on a subsequent reading, the focus is on the inner shell, which is white and shiny, thus indicating its undoubted “purity”. At the centre of this casing, like a precious jewel, there is a rougher object that is always different in each sculpture: it is our ego, which is the truest and most intimate. There are ways out of our fears, our cages can only be opened by those we feel close to and who show us empathy, love and affection. Legnaioli’s sculptures are created using plaster, acrylic paint, resin and paint for gilding.
In this series there is a visual connection with the series of engraved works on metal, which shows the traces of experiences that have occurred in the lives of women and men who have left their mark on the world in metals, and one can think of a sort of continuation in the poetics of “Foglie nel vento” (Leaves in the wind), that is, of the awareness of the random and involuntary fact of being physically in one place rather than another and of having people/leaves alongside one another rather than others; it is a look at destiny and chance to investigate the existential path of each person.
