Night and Day is a key example of Marialuisa Tadei’s use of mosaic to elevate tangible forms into a more ethereal realm.

Tadei’s works commonly explore mystical and spiritual views inspired by anatomy and nature, and uses geometric forms, such as circles, to symbolise eternity. The two-sided mosaic Night and Day (Incarnazione) is an extension of the artist’s Oculus Dei series (1998-2008), colourful and abstract disks made of glass and marble that can be interpreted as the details in human eyes.

Tadei believes the eyes and the act of looking to be very important. This work invites the viewer to gaze in, acting as a portal into another world. She first became interested in the connections between humanity and the cosmos, nature and the human body in the early 1980s. In 1994 an accident meant the artist had to spend a long time in hospital, where she became aware of fluorangiography, the technique of studying blood vessels in the iris and retina. Afterwards, she began creating works that investigate the eye as a microcosm.