SARAH BRAMAN, "Lay Me Down"
4 May - 12 June 2011

DEPART Foundation and MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma – present “Lay Me Down” American artist Sarah Braman’s first solo show in Italy.
Four sculptures, one of which was specially created during her stay in Rome, use light, colour, and matter to investigate and reveal the hidden and surprising desires of our world.

Braman’s sculptures are often made using an assemblage of furniture, scrap metal and sometimes abandoned car parts. For the artist, these works’ strong tangible presence represents "monuments to the people I love, to the joy and confusion I feel in being alive." Her scupltures act as a porthole to another dimension yet also appear as "things among things and indeed, they do not exist as [mere] references, allusions, representations, or metaphors [but] remain in our world as themeselves, real as a table or a tree."

The exhibition’s title, “Lay Me Down”, appears as a sign of abandonment before the inevitability of loss. This awareness is very much present in Braman’s work. Through her creative action, Sarah Braman manages to capture the fullness of the moment just as it is being transformed, materializing states of mind and fleeting sensations, personal and collective memories, physical and poetic visions that exist somewhere between past and present, reality and imagination. Trying to free the sculptures from a need for representation, Braman achieves a balance which while appearing precarious, turns out to be both spontaneous and stable under her ever-watchful, adaptable vision.

Produced and supported by the DEPART Foundation, in collaboration with MACRO “Lay me down” is promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e Centro Storico – Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali
Further support generously provided by Altay Scientific SpA.

Press Release 

English [PDF 167.15 K]

Italiano [PDF 200.15 K]