The things I knot, weld and knead together reflect my interest in the moment when routine becomes ritual and when action and reaction give things meaning, when the sacred or magical transfers onto secular objects and how those meaningful things are used to tell stories about the past, present and future. Through my objects, I attempt to untangle stories that sit at the crossroads of histories and dominant cultural narratives. I focus on the subversion of words over the centuries and how words are used in western histories, literature, religion and dictionaries both in contemporary and centuries-old text. Much of my research lies in translations of older texts. With a healthy dose of skepticism in the translation or multiple translations of one text, each translator’s motives and using historical cross references, I piece together bits of disparate facts in the attempt to find links between the persecution of polytheistic religions, women, queers and outsiders, and established Christian demons — Demons are Othered people. My makings reflect the stories not directly told in historical writings but lay in the inbetweenness of those histories. I consider what is not or chosen not to be written, what writing could have been destroyed with intention or accidentally, and how the retelling of stories can change over time and distances. By redressing the history of Christian demons, I consider who and what was demonized then and are still today in order to connect the past with the present to remember the future.

CHIARA NO
October 2024

Chiara No has shown at ZonaMaco, Mexico City; SpringBreak NYC; The Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, Field Projects; EXILE, Vienna, Austria and has participated in both the NYC and LA Printed Matter Art Book Fair. Her work has been featured on Hyperallergic and BmoreArt. No has been an artist-in-residence at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The Lighthouse Works, Wassaic Projects and Haystack School of Craft.

In 2015, No received the Silverstein Travel Grant allowing her to travel to Berlin to interview women in the Metal scene. Cassandra Press published her short screenplay, MU/TH/UR 6000, an experimental genderless horror screenplay in 2017 which is currently sold at Printed Matter. Her work on paper is in the Whitney’s Special Collection, the Walker Art Center Library and Archives, and the Art Institute of Chicago’s Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Library.

No currently lives and works in Johnson, Vermont.

Website: https://www.chiara-no.com