The theme treated in the works of the artists Isabel Consigliere is her solo show SUBTILIA – winner of the Special Prize Luisa Catucci Gallery of the Arteam Cup Competition – is undoubtedly the subtle, and perhaps sometimes unconscious, representation of the feminine.

The eternal feminine, that favor Dei that every woman possesses within herself, inherently, and that is not to be confused with the femininity, ensemble of the physical, psychological and behavioural characteristics judged by a specific culture to be ideally associated with the idea of women, in distinction from men. Looking at the works of Consigliere, one feels embraced by the intimate secret of the eternal feminine, which, as Rudolf Steiner said about the Goethe’s verses introducing this text: “here he means the female sex. He refers to that profundity signifying the human soul as related to the mystery of the world (…) It has nothing to do with something feminine in the ordinary sense. Therefore can we truly seek this ever-womanly in man and woman: the ever-womanly which aspires to the union with the ever-manly in the cosmos, to become one with the Divine-Spiritual that inter-penetrates and permeates the world towards which Faust strives.”

Discreet as a maiden from the past , bearer of the feminine mystery, the message in this artist works is never shouted, blatant, exuberant, nor highlighted in an explicit way, but it rather comes across in a subtle, acute and delicate way, for the attentive eyes that will be able to read it.

The sculptures made with dandelion seeds were conceived as pieces about the protection of the intrinsic and profound, essential nature of being. Where the dandelion seed represents a protective shell, soft and warm, but at the same time immensely fragile, that embraces us to cradle the delicacy of our soul. It is something we need, fundamental and powerful, but at the same time it is quickly corruptible if we do not become aware of it.

Protection of the essential nature of mankind, in the series For Survival, where symbolic objects related to childhood and covered with dandelion seeds, represent what we actually are, our deepest and most precious self, which deserves preservation and protection. Protection of the Essential Nature of the natural world, in the Requiem series where a centenarian Elm and an Hawthorn cut down by an ignorant hand are transfigured into their crystal coffin by a blanket of dandelion seeds.

Protection of the Vital Essence itself, in Consigliere’ s most recent series with dandelion seeds: Ex Semine. This allegory manifests itself through the use of the egg shape, in the sense of Cosmic Egg, one of the oldest representations of vital energy, harmony, knowledge and balance, used over the centuries by mystics, scientists and artists; just think of the “Pala di Brera” by Piero della Francesca. The ecological balance, beyond spiritual and metaphysical, is necessary for the correct evolution of the individual as well as of the society, and its attainment is the intrinsic wish in all three series of works with dandelions by Isabel Consigliere. Furthermore, the almost total absence of color transports the works to a universal dimension close to the oneiric world of the unconscious, where the communication is more subtle and the language is assonance and affinity.

Physis, the last series present in the gallery this time, works as bridge with this show and its interconnected exhibition in the gallery rooms upstairs,also spinning around the theme of sacred feminine: IMPERCEPTIBLE ECHOES, where the artist will exhibit together with Spanish women artist Belen Ordovas and Irene Cruz, .

To pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, Physis meant nature, understood as first and fundamental essence, principle and cause of all things. Consigliere interprets it also as our inner self, the most recondite and delicate part of our being. The term is enriched by various meanings in the philosophical and scientific terminology, intended as the force of nature and the ordering divinity of the Kosmos, but is nevertheless perceived as a feminine element. Taking up the Christian iconography of reliquary, Physis by Consigliere presents itself in the form of petals and flowers that flow from slots in anatomical sections made of beeswax, to remind us that behind the violence, the noise, the superficiality to which every day we adapt, flows in us an original soul, pure and powerful. A tribute to that part of us that makes us able to feel, create, understand and empathise.

The exclusive use of natural materials, wisely treated by the artist for conservation, also leads to highlight the obvious conjunction of our personal Physis with the one of the rest of Kosmos. Again a case where “the eternal feminine who yearns for the eternal masculine in the cosmos to unite with him, to become one with the spiritual Divinity that pervades the world, acting in the world”