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The artworks in the exhibition are the subject of a new artist’s book, bearing the same title of the show, produced by the Italian, London-based, artist Giulia Ricci between 2020 and 2022. The exhibition travels from Patrick Heide Gallery, London. The book, now in its second edition, has been an important personal journey for Ricci at a time of great collective uncertainty, as it was conceived and begun during the first Covid 19 lockdown. Inspired by Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto, originally published in Italy in 1969 and only recently translated into English, Lines of Empathy as a book and exhibition is ultimately a form of self-portrait through the acknowledgement of other artists’ practices that have influenced Ricci in her journey as a migrant from Italy to the UK over two decades.

The title Lines of Empathy is a synthesis of the project’s main themes: the exploration of the process of mark-making while drawing on paper, and empathy as the act of reaching out into someone else’s experience. The invited artists have been asked to talk in detail about their artwork on paper, with questions related to their choice of paper, media and processes used, their relationship with the body and the senses; they have also contributed their thoughts on the impact that the pandemic has had on their individual practices. The interview project has been informed by an interest in mirror neurons and empathy; the artworks have been considered as ‘vehicles’ for experiences which the viewers might feel a connection to.

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