Telaio infranto (Il cuore della vita) / Broken Frame (The Heart of Life), 1978

Embroidered jute tapestry, foam rubber covered in fabric, appliqués and mixed media
195 × 205 × 8 cm

At the centre of the mixed-media tapestry is a circular black plexiglass sheet, overlaid with two intersecting wooden embroidery hoops that allude to the union of marriage. Within this enclosed domestic space, Parrocchetti introduces an autobiographical element: a pink plastic doll with five small baby figurines falling downwards from between her legs. Corresponding to the five children the artist had, the figures evoke the physical and social demands of motherhood while also suggesting the extent to which female identity was historically bound to reproductive and domestic roles.

Outside of this designated space, Parrocchetti threads a constellation of objects and motifs that expand the work’s messaging on power, dependence, and reproductive control. Among them are abstract patriarchal figures resembling men holding staffs; tiny thread bobbins wrapped in the colours of the Italian flag; forms recalling electronic motherboards, emblematic of the rapidly developing technology of the late 1970s; and a fetus-like fabric form. Together, these disparate elements form a complex visual network in which marriage, motherhood, the female body, governmental control, technology, and patriarchal authority intersect. The work consequently transforms the apparently private sphere of domestic life into a site of political struggle, exposing some of the mechanisms through which women’s bodies and reproductive lives were subject to social control.

From the central composition also emerges a loosely woven red triangle. Its inverted form alludes both to the political symbolism of feminist protest and to the female body, while the long, irregular stitches hanging within it resemble drops of blood. At the top of the composition, five fabric butterflies appear to take flight, corresponding once again to the number of the artist’s children. Their upward movement introduces a hopeful image of transformation and liberation, perhaps imagining a freedom that might be inherited by the next generation. In this way, the work moves between the constraints of marriage, motherhood, and patriarchal authority and the possibility of breaking free from them.