Ottavia 2017

Sofia Bonati made "Ottavia" sometime in the 20th century. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what it is, but it's playing with ways of seeing, thinking and experiencing. The lines really grab me in this piece, how they seem to be vibrating off the surface. There’s something very tactile about the contrast between black and white here, it's not just visual, it’s like you could feel it. You can almost imagine the artist, mark by mark, deciding how to make the lines thicker or thinner, modulating them. This isn’t hidden from us. What is concealed is the medium, is it ink or paint? Either way, it feels like the lines coming off of the subject merge, like a kind of camouflage. This reminds me of Bridget Riley’s investigations into pure optical sensation. Riley also worked in black and white for a period. "Ottavia" seems to ask us, “How do you see?” but without actually providing an answer. It's a maze, like the one she has on her head.