Casulo
Artist name
Artist year born
1947
Artwork make date
2000
Artwork title translation
Cocoon
Artwork material
mixed media
Artwork dimensions
height: 150cm
width: 40cm
width: 40cm
Artwork type (categories)
Sculpture
Accession method
On loan from Dawn Ades
Accession number
27-2002
Label text
This work is one of a series of generically named Casulos, originally exhibited as an installation of eighteen giant cocoons. Constructed from frames of aluminium and wood, each Casulo is encased with earth from the countryside surrounding Siron Franco's studio, covered with natural pigment and encaustic paint, and then incised. Enmeshed within the painted surface is a combination of metal and organic substances, including fragrant beeswax and tobacco rolls, butterfly wings and frog hide, indigenous basket weaving and gold leaf. The Casulos are connected by technique to Franco's painting. Many of his canvases are built up, often with bare hands, in layers of paint and collage. The Casulo held by ESCALA is covered with dark brown and reddish earth, a strip of blond fibres and what appears to be black, human hair, topped by a single feather. Suspended pod-like from the ceiling the Casulo is a creaturely, uncanny presence.
Joanne Harwood
Joanne Harwood
Last updated date
2008