Marisa Ranalli is a textile artist who incorporates electronics into her artwork. She works with human interaction and how it relates to themes of deep sea life, human biology, and light. Marisa uses felt and silk to create three dimensional, wearable forms. Siphonophorae is the culmination of Marisa’s research over the past 5 years.

Siphonophorae’s opening reception is on December 6th, from 5:30-7:00pm. The show is viewable from December 7-11th, from 11am-5pm daily at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, NS. I will be showing the Crumple Shirt, Hybridization, Under the Surface, and one other pieces that I have been working on that are not on the website yet.

I will be having an artist talk on Wednesday December 8th at noon, in the gallery.

Google Maps Link to the Anna Leonowens Gallery

Facebook Event

My work tends to be derived from my fascination with the inside. The inside of machines, the inside of the human body, the inside of our thoughts; these are all things that are generally hidden, intentionally or otherwise. The necessity or possibility of destruction frightens us away from ever really being able to see these things. Some deep sea creatures, such as jellyfish, break this convention by exposing their insides through a transparent body, inspiring me to do the same through my outfit.

This piece consists of imagery influenced by internal biological elements of deep sea life and human anatomy. The lights mimic bioluminescent (emission of light by a living organism) sea creatures and their natural defence system. The ropes on the dress represent a jellyfish’s tentacles. The dress’s texture depicts muscle tissue. The flexing on the upper body of the dress suggests breathing.

Many different textile processes were utilized to assemble this outfit. Through felting, knitting, crocheting, dying and machine stitching, I have created the appearance of internal imagery. These materials were dyed with a combination of powdered drink mix and acid dyes, giving the fabric its vibrant colors.

Interwoven into the outfit are many conductive threads and wires. These wires provide energy to the LEDs (light emitting diodes) and nitinol (shape memory alloy). The nitnol and LEDs are both powered by a Lilypad Arduino (microcontroller), which also controls the flexing of the nitinol. Another Arduino, as well as a motion sensor, tells the lights on the skirt when to turn on.

There are more photos available on my flickr page. This piece will be shown at the Lennox Contemporary Gallery from April 30th-May 10th 2009. More information available in this post.