Michelle Lynn Dyrness
Sacramento, CA
www.michellelynndyrness.com

Ghost at Noon
2024
Assorted papers, bass wood, glue, typewritten text
9″x6″x1.25″

Artist Statement

This piece is an interpretative gesture of the Casa Malaparte in Capri (~1937) as an expression of the Italian writer Alberto Moravia’s (1907-1990) 1954 novel Il Disprezzo (translated as Contempt, or titled A Ghost at Noon in earlier editions). In 1963, Godard’s film Le Mépris (Contempt) – which is based on Moravia’s novel – brought new fame to the villa. However, what interests me is the mystery surrounding the relationship between the real villa and the imagined villa in the novel – both in Capri (years before Godard even conceived of his film). The historical details inspired my initial concept (for example both Alberto Moravia and Curzio Malaparte were living on Capri at the same time, their personal and artistic lives intersecting and influencing one another and others, frequently at the villa). The particular location of the novel’s villa on Capri suggests it could be Casa Malaparte but Moravia’s descriptions of the architecture are not exact (Moravia was no longer living in Capri when he wrote Contempt). And yet the lives of those involved overlapped and it’s easy to imagine the effect Casa Malaparte had on his imagination. The making of this book-like object was a kind of interpretive exercise inspired by the novel, and by the descriptive and haunting presence place has that is ambiguous and yet significant and indelible, hovering between memory and what is real vs what is imagined. This work, Ghost at Noon, is ultimately an homage to the indeterminate and unpredictable life a work takes on after its completion, in which its enduring and mythic echoes inspire and ignite other works by different makers, like a vine with tendrils that grabs hold forward through time.

The objective in my process was to make a somewhat rudimentary object where the assembly and materials are explicit. The layers of thick blotting paper are apparent much like the edges of the pages of a book, and then carved and cut, with the final assemblage comprised of repurposed paper discarded from projects, and taken from old, damaged books. The finished object hovers just slightly over the surface on which it sits, attached to a thin pedestal of bass wood and rag paper. The typewritten page of short text is a combination of both my and Moravia’s words (words from Contempt). The small sculptural element on the cover (the “terrace” of this little modeled edifice), made from repurposed blotting paper, is loosely created not just after the curious curved wall that sits on the roof terrace of Casa Malaparte but is also inspired by the winged Victory statue of the goddess Nike from Somathrace. It is symbolic of an everlasting link between ancient history and modern creations.