[dentifier] K2018-002

"My works are at once aesthetic and conceptual. They are rich in anecdotes and research. Each work contains a formal or intellectual element that opens the door to other stories and connections. Like Chinese boxes, where you open one box to find another one, and then another one, and another one.” Raffaella Crispino, 2022.

The large textile work Untitled (Time Zones) was inspired by Raffaella Crispino's research into the possibility of time travel using international flights that traverse time zones. Like a flight that takes off and lands on the same day and at the same hour, or another that leaves Tokyo on 1 January and arrives in San Francisco on 31 December of the previous year.

Here, the artist explores the historical stakes that underpin the creation of time zones and longitudinal calculations, which can be traced back to the first colonial voyages.

The seams between the different bands of organza fabric evoke these contiguous border tracts, determined by political and colonial interests as well as historical and geographical factors. Across the demarcation lines, however, excess pieces of material overlap and intermingle, redrawing the territories and temporalities delineated by the time zones. In this way, the work imagines the promise of new horizons, while demonstrating the need for new and collective stories.