*

Hour of the Rose

‘ Not only would flowers cover surfaces, they would cascade down from the ceiling, filling the room with a scent so strong it was almost nauseating, especially because the feasts lasted hours, if not days. The roses’ presence was so encompassing at these meals that they became known as “the hour of the rose ’

From Sunday June 11 to Friday June 16, 2023, Soho House Rome’s San Lorenzo studio will host Hour of the Rose, a solo show by Czech American artist Marta Abbott. Curated by Luisa Ausenda, the exhibition features Abbott’s new series, also titled Hour of the Rose, in which the artist experiments for one of the first times with the photographic medium. Its title echoes the celebration of the ephemerality of life perpetrated by the ancient Romans by scattering their banquets’ surfaces with copious rose petals and garnishing them with an abundance of floral arrangements.

The artist first read about the role these flowers allegedly played in ancient Roman banquets in a text by Charles P. Griner. Not only would flowers cover surfaces, they would cascade down from the ceiling, filling the room with a scent so strong it was almost nauseating, especially because the feasts lasted hours, if not days. The roses’ presence was so encompassing at these meals that they became known as “the hour of the rose”. The thread leading from this idea to Abbott’s work is the artist’s longtime fascination with the colors and forms which compose the language of flowers, as well as with that sort of natural beauty which is bonded with their transience.

In this new series, the artist juxtaposes and blends high resolution photographs of flowers with images of sources of light such as fireworks and clear blue Roman skies. The latter, according to the artist “are reminders that the embracing of decadence can be seen all around the city still, both in its overwhelming beauty and its decay”.

In her artistic practice, Abbott constructs a new and intimate filter through which to observe the world, recognizing macrocosms within microcosms, the universal within the individual and vice versa. Her deepest area of interest, in fact, is our relationship with the natural world and the ways in which it manifests both in the physical and spiritual realms. Most typically, she explores this dynamic through an ongoing exploration on paper of color, its origins, its properties, and its powers. In particular, she extracts her palette and her mediums from natural and organic materials using ancient methods, turning them into inks and paints.

Based in Rome, Abbott aims at creating a new language which is able to reply to age-old questions. The pursuit for the pictorial composition and the balance between brightness and shadow, darkness and light permeate not only her work on paper, but also her photographic output. The result is a unique visual narrative crafted from pigments and recounted within studies of light. It is no wonder that in her formative years she undertook art restoration and floral design: Abbott’s practice is informed both by arrangement, and by repair, renewal and restitution.

The mystery of beauty’s effect on us has been object of study as well as muse for creators since ancient times. Abbott’s path is also one in search of beauty and awe, especially within the magic realized by the natural elements and our ability to contemplate, mimic, and celebrate them. As the artist would put it: “The celebration of beauty [...] is an intrinsic need that feeds a part of us we may not completely understand but which we cannot ignore.”