Stefania Carlotti's work, Love Plus Hate Is Named Desire, presents on one side the artist sculpting the body of a figure in clay, and on the other, the prosthetic nails used as tools during the modeling process. The image, with its relatively pronounced grid, works in two colors on the first side, with the red nails becoming a shiny surface that clearly stands out from the composition. The sculpted figure stands head-on in the center of the image, its two feet firmly planted on the ground. Its four limbs appear as fragile as they are solid, the black material revealing their liquid and soft content through the reverberations of light, reminiscent of puddles on the work surface. The figure has something of a warrior in its stature, but its scale in relation to the hand leaves it at the mercy of the artist, who could blur it with a gesture.

Once separated from the artist's body and placed inertly on a white work surface, the nails become an abstract landscape of unknown scale and utility. Somewhere between weapons, tools, and relics, their arrangement draws the arches of two hands. Their prosthetic dimension remains perceptible, and we can feel their connection to the body and gestures, without knowing whether they are intended for acts of love or violence.

In her practice, Stefania Carlotti refers a great deal to everyday life, to the gestures and objects that define it. She then transforms them in a variation that is both satirical and sublimated, making the elements she deals with spectacular. The objects could be read as cinematic elements referential to specific genres. Love Plus Hate Is Named Desire could thus function as a poster for a film somewhere between gore and fantasy, with the dramaturgy of the images suggesting a sequel to the story.

Resolutely pop in its treatment of the print screen, reminiscent of Warhol's emblematic silkscreens, the image stands in the interstices of intersecting references. The use of nails, which are generally perceived as feminine elements linked to beauty, exists here as an element of dominance and creation over the sculpted form. Their innocuousness is called into question. The artist seems to be questioning whether their touch is scratching or caressing.