Marisa DiPaola’s workshop in Monza, Italy

‘toadstools of monza park’
recreating the tree & giant toadstools that I found while exploring Monza park,
the largest walled park in Europe.

While there, it rained nearly everyday,
& in the park I did discover old men in rubber boots with baskets,
searching for edible mushrooms.
So as an “action” (as assigned by Isidro Blasco, my workshop leader)
I recreated some of the honey mushrooms growing about,
I recognized these as edibles from home,
& shaped & baked them out of a home-made yeasted yogurt dough,
glazed with honey,
& “planted” them outside under a tree for others to find & pick.

A third project, a mini-site-specific sculpture,
‘grapevine’ was a collaborative project with Yasemin Kackar-Demirel,
a Turkish artist in my workshop group.
The day the gardener pruned the leaves from the grapevine,
we crocheted a new grapevine to take its place.

"toadstools of monza park". Quilted & sewn found turkish upholstery fabric & old clothes on wired found cushions & broken umbrellas 12 feet high x 7 ½ feet wide x 5 feet deep; site-specific replication of giant toadstools emerging from tree, found on exploration of monza park during explor-art 2010 week-long workshop with isidro blasco at areaOdeon, monza, italy, 2010

The tree

grapevine. crocheted found sewn fabric & yarn 8 feet high x 5 feet wide; a collaboration with yasemin kackar-demirel; inspired the grapevines growing at cascina costa alti, monza park, italy, as assigned by isidro blasco