Raffaella Della Olga: Between Typewriter and Fabric

Raffaella Della Olga discusses her dual practice of typewriter works on paper and interventions on colored fabrics. She draws an etymological link between textum (text) and texere (weaving), seeing the typewriter as a sewing machine. Initially using the typewriter conventionally, she later typed on white cotton, then replaced ink ribbon with colored carbon paper and tracing paper, assembling layers into book form. She modified the keyboard by filing off the '8' key to create a non-sign, eventually removing ink ribbons entirely, using only carbon paper to impress characters onto various supports like fabrics and plastic mesh. Her work is based on a grid obsession—lines, squares, grids—providing structure for transparency and movement. On fabric, she cuts away fragments following the printed pattern, a subtractive process opposite to the additive one on paper. She presents fabric folded on itself, suspended a few centimeters apart, creating duplication and transparency, referencing shaped canvases but emphasizing the fabric's manipulability and performative quality. The book is an object where two-dimensional writing becomes a constructed support and montage. Her exhibition 'Dépliements' runs until November 17, 2018 at Éditions Dilecta, 49 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, Paris.