When Cassina Project launches a project, it never disappoints. The current ongoing exhibition – Dissolve and Come Back – captivates viewers with Sara Birns‘ (1992) distorted and eccentric world. Born and educated in the United States, her works are exhibited internationally, standing out for their meticulous hyperrealistic technique. Birns’ imagination stages another world, a kaleidoscopic universe populated by creatures halfway between humans and animals. Observing the maniacal details of her large oil canvases is both unsettling and fascinating. The artist’s intention is to capture the elusive essence of life in its entirety. «Sara Birns  shatters every pattern on which we base our beliefs,» explains Edoardo Monti, «pushing the surreal boundaries of creativity and infusing her work with a unique perspective that challenges traditional norms, thus opening up new paths of expression».
The faces and scenarios depicted by Birns are illusions and metamorphoses of a potentially true reality, but one that takes on a surreal dimension, approaching the hyperrealist component that inevitably generates a contradictory feeling. Human-like faces are reflected in watery surfaces, distorting and entangling themselves. In this sense, the artist touches upon the theme of memory and its fragility. Few, confused details attempt to fit together like pieces of an impossible puzzle to reconstruct. The result is a distorted image, a shade of reality that, in its attempt at objectivity, wholly embodies a personal and counterfeit perspective. Through a painterly evocation of the past, Sara Birns invites viewers to reflect on the transcendent and elusive nature of everything we try to make sense of.
The exhibition is open until Jan, 27.
Courtesy Sara Birns
