by Jon Lackman | 27 September 2006 | Contemporary
In a long interview with Phong Bui in the Brooklyn Rail, Serra hints that he might have had something to do with the beginnings of Arte Povera, when he was in Italy on a Fulbright: “I dropped painting and started working with stuffed and live animals, including chickens, rabbits, and a live pig, zoological cage experiments, which led to my first one-man show in Rome at the Galleria La Salita. At that time, Arte Povera hadn’t really coalesced as a movement—I’m not saying I was responsible for it, but it was in the air.” He also mentions Borromini’s influence on the Torqued Ellipses: “I remember visiting Borromini’s Church San Carlo in Rome; I thought I was looking at a classical oval on floor and ceiling. I wrongly thought that the oval of the ceiling was turned at an angle to the oval of the floor. I misread it. I subsequently became very interested in my misinterpretation.”
