The Project 

When Bea Scaccia paints, she conceives compositions that combine anatomical details with wigs, jewelry, furs, and fabrics, representing stereotypical elements of female beauty. At the same time, she emphasizes their abnormality, their potential to become shapeless assemblages, and their capacity to contain persistent mutations and darkness. 

«Women have always been monsters,» says Sady Doyle. «Female monstrosity creeps into every myth, from the most famous to the least known: carnivorous mermaids, Furies who tear men apart with razor-sharp claws, leanan sídhe who enchant mortals and then drain their souls. These figures — lethally beautiful or intolerably ugly, devious or overflowing with animal fury—represent everything that men find threatening in women: beauty, intelligence, anger, and ambition.»

During her residency in Praiano, Scaccia intends to make new memories and retrace her own. I now also include elements related to the home and domesticity, such as teapots, cups, lamps, and fruit baskets. The house, too, is linked to the role of women, especially in certain elements and rooms.

I would like to hear stories, meet the women who live there, and understand their traditions and passions. I would like to enter the kitchens, the rooms, the workplaces, and observe the streets, listening to their stories. Are there chairs outside on the street? Are they used? Do people talk outside after dinner? What about the girls in a small seaside town? How much pressure do they feel? Schools? Are there any? What is the clothing like? The accessories? How does the sea influence change? The sea is trusted. It is there. They tell us it will keep rising.

I will devote myself daily to a visual diary, jotting down notes and sketches. That will become the starting point for a new series of works. I will work on relatively large sheets of paper, with watercolors and inks. One drawing a day.»».