Isaura
This is one of three works from Rua’s series inspired by Italo Calvino’s 1972 novel, Invisible Cities, which finds Marco Polo speaking to Kublai Khan about his travels throughout the wondrous and surreal cities under the Khan’s possession. Visualizing these imaginative cities using Marco Polo’s descriptions, Rua has created a series of color pencil works on paper that portray the special qualities of each environment.
In Isaura, a monochromatic and deeply layered composition visualizes the “city of the thousand wells.” By composing the scene as a figure-ground grouping of forms, this artwork portrays the consistent architectural elements of the city, which is said to have been constructed over a deep lake from which its citizens dig long vertical holes to draw water.
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