Fabric is but what the loom produces: small waves of thread, a surface, a new skin. Of course, fabric is more than skin-deep. In this series, Mariapia Malerba engages in a dialogue between strength and fragility, solidity of form against ephemeral delicacy. Her work is a suspended, impossible, loose balance, an orcama in her native dialect.

 

This visual dialogue takes place on precious, yet sustainable, manufactured silk. The garments are beautiful, but this is a beauty that lives in layers, beneath distressing truths, insights, identities, beneath and between the natural and the industrial. All this while the wearer experiences the tactile sensuality of silk against the skin.

 

Malerba’s work opens a door for us, leaving it slightly ajar, where light floods through the narrowest of gaps and we see ourselves.

​

Mariapia Malerba  //  A'Jar Silk Collection