2022, Dyed human hair, silicone, glass, tape, watercolor paper, earrings, pins Variable Dimensions

“The research of Fongaro and Longo converge in a collaborative installation, characterized by the use of materials with a strong tactile appeal. A work that could be considered a "fantastic lepidopterarium"; a collection of about forty holotypes of imaginary and impossible lepidoptera, each with its own scientific reference name and colors inspired by species existing in nature. These butterflies consist of silicone ears, placed side by side in a specular way, and tufts of human hair of various geographical origins, and subsequently dyed. The presence of hair on the ears generates a sense of disturbance, since, if it is true that hair is a symbol of beauty, it is equally true that it is perceived as such when it grows in conventional points of the body - i.e. on the head - otherwise it can be unaesthetic if not downright disgusting, although it is a real and natural possibility if we consider the phenomena of hypertrichosis or hirsutism. Playing on this perceptive aspect of attraction and repulsion at the same time, Fongaro and Longo create unrealizable but imaginable creatures, the result of the fantastic union of elements that are part of the common experience. There is an idea of ​​a butterfly in our head, which takes shape according to the specimens that each of us has been able to see. In a similar way we are able to recognize an ear as well as hair or fuzz. It is from the hybridization of this prior knowledge that Fongaro and Longo create "butterflies of ears" or "ears of butterflies", depending on the preferred interpretation. The users, from the observation of the holotypes, receive new information, common to all those who have had or who will experience it; the information thus becomes part of the baggage of a limited community, which will be able to speak and discuss these new alleged creatures, questioning their origins and peculiarities."
-Valeria De Siero

Photos courtesy of Sara Galletta