Galleria Franco Noero is pleased to present the fourth solo exhibition at the gallery by Simon Starling.

F as in Foglia continues Simon Starlingʼs interest in the redeployment of the manufacturing and design history of Turin pursued over his 10 year long relationship with Galleria Franco Noero, as well as his ongoing interrogation of the processes used in the making of his own work - from the age-old crafts of boat building or mask making, to the high-tech world of steel fabrication or computer-guided milling.

In this new work produced specifically for the small shop-front space on Piazza Santa Giulia in central Turin, Starling has collaborated with the sign writer Laura Panfani, who is continuing to nurture the tradition of sign making established in large part by her teacherʼs, the celebrated sign makers Insegne Cucco who throughout the 20th century did much to shape the feel of Turinʼs characteristic retail signage.

Simon Starlingʼs six hybrid glass ʻsignsʼ track the processes used in this traditional form of sign making. The six images that constitute the final work, document the initial production of a single black and gold glass panel that evocatively spells out the Italian word ʻfogliaʼ (leaf) in reference to the gold leaf (foglia dʼoro) used in a process known as ʻfinta incavaturaʼ (fake indentation) that creates elegant, seemingly three-dimensional letters on a flat sheet of glass.

Starlingʼs somewhat abstracted photographic images have been “feed back” into the sign making process through the additional use of silkscreen printing that is in turn underscored by Panfaniʼs subsequent application of layers of gold leaf and paint.