B[æ]d Time

B[æ]D TIME

36 cast, ground, frosted black glass elements, treated velvet pillow, 122×44×5 cm

Also on display at Ca’ Pesaro in Morucchio’s solo exhibition Back in Black (2011),B[æ]D TIME takes its title from a play on words between “bad” and “bed,” combining two contrasting ideas—comfort and unease. The work consists of thirty-six black frosted glass tiles arranged in four rows, accompanied by a black velvet cushion. The same pointed glass modules used in Cross Shoots are here transformed into a metaphor for discomfort and fragile repose.

As critic Daniele Capra notes, “sleep is an indescribable pleasure for anyone whose life is not ravaged by insomnia.” In B[æ]d Time, Morucchio subverts this notion, turning the bed—traditionally a place of intimacy and protection—into “a site of passion, torment, and physical torture.” What appears at first as a refined design object reveals itself as an “infernal alcove,” seducing the viewer through its formal precision while evoking a visceral sense of unease.

Capra further observes that Morucchio distances himself from Western sculptural tradition by using black opaque glass—a material that defies Venice’s celebrated heritage of translucent and luminous glassmaking. Instead of transparency, Morucchio embraces opacity and density, creating a paradoxical reversal of expectations. The fragile materiality of the glass, prone to fracture under pressure, becomes a metaphor for psychic vulnerability—suggesting that even rest, like the glass itself, may shatter under the weight of unspoken tensions or nightmares.