Artist Statement:
Independent of medium my work always focuses primarily on the experience of the viewer. Manipulating textures, scale, and colours, my works’ main consistent attribute is triggering to all senses. My creations push the viewer into hyper-sensory, whimsical, worlds where unfamiliar and familiar textures and shapes collide in order to fully immerse the audience and put into question the world as we know it. In my personal practice, I use my skills and knowledge to create sceneries reminiscent of our own reality intertwined with out-of-the-ordinary elements in order to instigate a feeling of both nostalgia and unfamiliarity at the same time. As I’ve travelled around this earth, I’ve grown to know deeply multiple cultures and ways of life, and love entangling different communities into my work, and using local motifs as my familiar subject.

Giovanna Chiarella is a multi-disciplinary artist and maker, originally from São Paulo, Brazil, currently based in Belfast. She is currently focused on the creation of rugs, tapestries, and out-of-the-ordinary textile items covered in shag textures. With a background in set design and prop construction and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Columbia College Chicago, Giovanna has had a versatile past, where she’s explored many fabrication techniques and materials. From woodworking to perspex, to soft materials, Giovanna has gathered a vast amount of knowledge in fabrication. Despite her many ventures, Giovanna’s consistency lies within her playful and humorous style, passion for the 1960s and 70s art and decor, and her interest in titillating the viewer’s senses by manipulating textures. Most recently Giovanna’s opened a shop for her textile products called Shag Everything, and produces her pieces from her studio in Platform Arts Belfast, using 100% cotton wool and a special tool called a tufting gun. Her goal is to use the medium in ways it hasn’t been used before and produce pieces that speak to and unites Belfasts’ communities in unexpected, lighthearted, and comical ways, using subjects like the Ulster Fry, local slang and lingo and imagery.

Instagram: @gi.ffy

Website: https://gsfinearts.com/

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/shagshopuk?ref=profile_header