Marisa Merz

As is frequently the case in Marisa Merz’s work, the raw and the precious are found in close proximity. What is surprising in this work is the crude fashioning of clay and the fragmented appearance of the face that is combined with the refinement of the gold leaf and the careful working of the metal. The grid knitted from copper wire forms a kind of veil that protects the face.

From the mid-1970s onwards, Merz produced numerous small heads from wax, plaster or, as here, clay. By leaving the clay in its raw state, she reminds us that the material is mutable and alive. These small, rudimentary and barely formed heads appear as if in the middle of the process of creation. As with the Living Sculptures, we are being presented with hybrid beings captured in a moment of transformation.