Marianna Kennedy
Marianna Kennedy
As Above So Below
2021
Carved pine wood, caput mortuum coloured plaster, pink mercury glass
Designed by Marianna Kennedy for the Fondazione Luigi Rovati, As Above So Below is an evocative mirror made of carved pine wood, burnished caput mortuum gesso, and mercury glass infused with pink pigment.
The title refers to a 16th-century alchemical treatise: the mirror represents the material world (below), evoked through rocks and caves, reaching upward toward the spiritual world (above). The leaves and the reflected light become symbols of transformation and rebirth.
The pigment used in the gesso — the purplish-brown burnished tone known as caput mortuum — takes its name from alchemy, where it was associated with death and decay and represented by a stylised head. In this work, however, it is given new vitality through its dialogue with the rose-tinted glass.