what can i hold you with

(2021)

Soft Sculpture, Steel, Brick, Powdered Charcoal on Muslin, and Video 

2021 

 Marotta investigates futile bodies and structures through her installations. She creates fatigued soft sculptures that bend under pressure of gravity. Their submission to their environment imbues the work with exhaustion, futility, and weight.  Marotta’s practice has centered on longing and the idea of "reach but can't touch". “What Can I Hold You With” aims to integrate ideas of connection, reaching, looking backward and forward, and uncertain thresholds. She utilizes symbols of industry and the failing American infrastructure to underline what could be/what has been. The almost touching threshold supported by soft locks hopes to illustrate the fragility of security and desire for grounding. The fatigued ladder imbues the space with the exhaustion of reaching and the weight it brings.