LONDON.- For her first solo show in the UK, Italian artist Adelaide Cioni (b. 1976) presents Ab ovo. The exhibition is the culmination of the artist’s ongoing exploration of decorative patterns and is her most ambitious project to date, investigating visual language across mediums in a large-scale format. Presented at Mimosa House, Ab ovo is supported by the Italian Council, Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, Italian Ministry of Culture. It runs from 9 March until 25 April 2023 and admission is free.

The central concern of Ab ovo (literally ‘from the egg, from the very beginning’) is the recurrence of abstract patterns – stripes, triangles, grids, circles, stylized leaves and stars – both in artefacts and in nature. These recur throughout history and across geographical areas, from early non-western visual imagery to present-day systems and testify to a connection between humans and objects in a non-linear way suggesting a common visual heritage. Yet they have no voice and no story. Ab ovo is a song of the margins, a confrontation between human and non-human language.

Cioni works at the intersection of painting, textiles and performance. Drawing is at the core of her practice, based on a feminist non-narrative approach. During the exhibition (on 8 and 11 March) she will premiere a new performance exploring how music and the dancing body respond to these abstract patterns. There will be an artist’s talk on 30 March and the Ab ovo publication will be launched on 25 April.

Cioni says, ‘Patterns are the visualisation of a rhythm in space. This rhythm takes on different shapes and colours to express the different vibrations of whoever is creating it. And it is repetitive and constant because that is the basis of life. The heart and our internal organs are repetitive and constant. They are the bass line of our existence. So, patterns are a portrayal of the bass line of our existence. Making or drawing a pattern is like singing a song. Projecting out your own rhythm, your own vibration. To see it double itself, to have confirmation of your being real.’