CAROL RAMA

Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him.

—William Shakespeare, Macbeth

By turns perverse and subversive, Carol Rama’s work stands ahead of its moment, anticipating present-day debates on the aesthetic intersections of sexuality, representation, and power. Comprised of two dark canvases conjoined with a richly patinaed sheet metal, Presagi de Birnam (Birnam’s Premonitions, 1994) incorporates the inner tubes of bicycle tires, alternately splayed flat and hung from a hook. From a series with titles that reference the three witches of Shakespeare’s Macbeth Presagi de Birnam references an amalgam of interstitial spaces in personal, social, and literary realms.

CAROL RAMA
Presagi di Birnam
1994
Rubber inner tubes, synthetic fabric, iron hook, and iron plate
53 1/8 x 23 5/8 inches (135 x 60 cm)
© Archivio Carol Rama, Torino