Domitilla Biondi

Paper sculptor

©Lorenzo Vivaldini

©Domitilla Biondi

Meditation meets art

Domitilla's bas-reliefs are created by carving both paper and porcelain
She is a sound healer and conscious living ambassador
She opened her studio in 2016 in Milan and moved to Rome in 2020

Domitilla Biondi's craft is a spontaneous expression of holistic personal growth. She graduated in Graphic Design in 1996 and after her father’s premature death, felt that something was changing. In order to heal many aspects of her life, she abandoned her previous career as Interaction Designer and graduated in Sound Healing. When visiting an exhibition of Ellen Gallagher in London in 2013, she saw paintings made by scraping paper on itself. “The use of scraping and cutting, rather than painting with colours, came to me like an epiphany. So I started experimenting with a surgical blade on paper and discovered that I can express visually the harmony that I play, on the other hand, with therapeutic singing bowls.” In 2019 she set herself the goal to sculpt the thinnest porcelain possible, thinner than 1 mm. Since then her endeavours have continued to bring healing techniques, paper creations and digital processes into collision with each other.

Interview

©Katia Muscara

©Lorenzo Vivaldini

How do you create your artworks?: I am unusual to neither cut nor glue: I simply carve with a scalpel, in a meditative state. Not a single bit of paper is cut off from the single sheet I use. Every work is uniquely inspired and there are no copies. I don’t pre-study the composition: everything appears while I’m carving.
How long does it take to complete one piece?: I cannot really answer because every time is different. Without having a design in mind, I don’t know at what point of my carving is the end nor how long it will take. It is mainly related to the state of connection with the inner self: the better it is, the quicker the work flows.
What are your sources of inspiration?: Sound, meditation, silence and nature. I feel a strong resonance with the inherent minimalism of Japanese art, but I’m also fascinated by Roman baroque and its use of shells and curves. A person can also be a source of inspiration for me.
Are you experimenting with any other material?: Recently, I have been experimenting with porcelain. It is interesting to explore how my style can be brought into 3-D form. In 2019, I attended a weekend workshop by Martha Pachon Rodriguez on the transparency of porcelain, and I loved it.

Domitilla Biondi is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2013