ARTIST #04 Cinzia Mutigli
In April this year, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the Edinburgh Art Festival had to be cancelled. However, as Edinburgh and its vibrant visual art scene begin to emerge from lockdown we are delighted to present this new weekly showcase, produced alongside Edinburgh Art Festival, featuring work by artists with digital and/or physical exhibitions at the city’s galleries.
is a new installation and film by Scottish artist Cinzia Mutigli created in response to an Allan Kaprow happening of the same name (a 30m long wall built in Berlin using concrete blocks and slices of bread spread with strawberry jam as mortar). Mutigli’s work interweaves stories about sugar, addiction, trauma and postcolonial identity. Using sugar as a central metaphor, it links the historic trauma of the trans-atlantic slave trade with an exploration of addiction, understood as any repeated behaviour in which a person feels compelled to persist in spite of its negative consequences. The film collages footage of sugar being added to tea with excerpts from prominent authors on the history of Black people in Britain, including Peter Fryer, and a commentary about the links between addiction and childhood trauma by psychologist Gabor Maté.
Mutigli has designed wallpaper to entirely cover the gallery, using a repeating sugar cube motif and screengrabs from the popular game Candy Crush, which together create a kaleidoscopic effect. To give each member of the audience their own sugar rush, fresh jam sandwiches are available in the gallery for people to eat whilst watching the film. Sweet
Wall is part of the ongoing Allan Kaprow series, on show at Jupiter Artland until 27 September and then digitally via www. jupiterartland.org