Metalmorphosis. A Journey in the Transition
Text om detta projekt finns bara på engelska
This project takes its cue in the reflection on the bond which rises between aesthetic and ethic in the art, specifically in connection within the value that this necessarily adds to personal expression. Along the way, this insight articulates through the narrative of practical and theoretical developments in artistic practice. In this context, considerations upon the temporality, transformation and transitoriness overlap, thus generating a constant flux of consciousness and materiality. Metamorphosis with its intrinsical mutation becomes, hence, the representation of the creative process and life.
The exploration of oneself, and the awareness of the constant changing which everyone experiences, brings to light certain queries, concerning the relation established in the art, among universal and personal insights. The role that they play, in the construction of storytelling, able to actively engage the viewer, lastly the possibility to express the vital flux in the sculpture staticity.
In this regard, patinas, emphasizing the transition of the metal state, become, simultaneously, the central aspect and the starting point on which develops the entire project, which finds its most accomplished expression in the realization of three installations: namely, Metalmorphosis Chiara, Metalmorphosis Rameica and Metalmorphosis Ramata.
The first setup is composed of a hundred sixty-eight aluminium pieces, divided into twelve central elements (58 cm x 58 cm x 9 cm), over which are posed, the same amount of items with reduced dimension (35 cm x 35 cm x 5 cm), lastly surrounded by other twelve components (15 cm x 15 cm x 3 cm).
Despite my initial lack of full awareness about it, the number twelve seems to play here an essential role. Indeed, in all honesty, when I first decided to work on Metalmorphosis Chiara, I felt like guided by the inner need to relate to this specific quantity. But only later, I comprehended better the meaning of this choice: in fact, it directly connects with the months’ number of the solar year. Moreover, if we divide this unity by three (amount of the layers forming each main element) is attained the numeral of the seasons, namely four. Therefore, this installation, emphasizing the natural life flow, visually unfurls in small clusters, which evoke a sense of transience. And this occurs, principally thanks to the various colour tonalities of its bigger constituents, thus symbolising the ageing process through the representation of youthfulness or start, maturity or midpoint and oldness or end. Within this changing flux, a general sense of harmony is, however, revealed by the pieces that are encircling the leading figures: all patinated with the same mixture, notwithstanding the others twenty-four, have been treated with different ingredient proportions, of the identical blend.
The aluminium pieces, of which is composed Metalmorphosis Chiara, have the characteristic, due to the presence of an algal proliferation on their surfaces, to gradually change their colour over time, thus attaining a blu pale shade and progressively uniforming themself in the ageing process. Transition is, here, an integral part of the artwork, and help the identification of the viewer with the object and the narrative of the art piece. It embodied the real-life performance of the vital processing, from the very beginning raise until the natural conclusion, thus transforming in a mirroring representation of the cosmic energies.
The video presenting this setup originates and evolves from the needs to adjust the expressive paradigms, to the new social restrictions imposed by the sanitary emergency. The personal political objection to some attitudes assumed by my native country in this last period, lead me to enrich the work with new insights, more directly related to the actual situation of disorientation and isolation in which we found ourselves. In this specific context, the chosen scenery of an abandoned quarry well emphasizes the sense of alienation and bewilderment.
Visually very different from the previous installation appears, instead, Metalmorphosis Rameica. A structure composed of a central copper sculpture (99 cm x 99 cm x 20 cm), over which lay two metallic layers, differing in dimensions. The bigger surface is underneath (58 cm x 58 cm x 9 cm), while the smaller is in the top position (45 cm x 45 cm x 5 cm). In this contest, the principal figure is surrounded by twenty-four aluminium pieces, so arranged: twelve (25 cm x 25 cm x 3 cm) are framing the composition. Whereas, the other dozen (15 cm x 15 cm x 3 cm) is placed over them. The two different metals have been treated, in this instance, with diverse chemical mixtures. Even though the aluminium components have been subjected to the same processing, the utilization of different proportions in the chemically blend ingredients has enabled to achieve two variety of nuances.
Lastly, I would like to mention Metalmorphosis Ramata. A copper installation composed of six circular figures (58 cm x 58 cm x 9 cm), over which are leaning two metallic layers differing in dimensions, so that the smaller (25 cm x 25 cm x 3 cm) lays over the bigger (35 cm x 35 cm x 3 cm). Originally intended to be placed in the entrance of the chosen exhibition hall, the composition has been designed in a way to be arranged symmetrically and split into two clusters, thus emphasizing the way in and inviting the viewers to immerse in the scenery.
In conclusion, generally reflecting on the entire project, is crucial to express the importance assumed by the empirical and intuitional approach, in the interaction with the chosen medium. Indeed, the practical discoveries promoted by the physical experimentations of patinas directly on metal, have been leading the whole artistic searching, stimulating a vivid curiosity for materiality, and its interaction with organic as well as inorganic elements.
Artistic and craftmanship experiences merged within this project in a harmonic balance, able to disclose, under different prospectives, what I deem to be the very meaning of life: namely, the being transition attributable to the constant transformation process of the self.
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