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"I want to see the world illuminated"

 

electric lights, wood, plastic bottle, water. 2014

Starting the MFA Wimbledon opens my practice to the vast range of workshops and new techniques through which I pushed my research.

 

The technique I first explored was printing. I wanted to make a self-portrait and at the same time, because printing is much based on series of attempts I could refect on myself, my identity and how to present myself visually.

 

In fact at this stage I needed to locate myself first and then to present myself to an audience.

 

From this attempt derives a series of black -and- white and coloured prints and finally a self-portrait in fabric.

 

The hanging piece “After Mexico: (London) inside a car” showing in the first large image on the left belongs to this period. The context is my daily photography practice along with Richard Wentworth and Richard Tuttle's work.

 

In coming back to London I felt that photography was the right tool to express that part of the city which I felt closest to me at the moment.

 

The piece, in fact, derives from a picture I took of a car's interiors and it illustrates my interest in the black community of Tooting, where I live.

 

The title is also connected with an exhibition I visited at the beginning of October and formarly with a very small self portrait of Frida Khalo.

 

Metaphorical and formal aspects are very  much related in my practice - the hand-made process of my pieces being pursued accurately.


At this point I decided to select  fabric as my favourite medium and I also introduced the element of sand in my piece, as a metaphor of dream and hope.


I compared myself to  the black community and placed myself in the position of a European migrant--one of those who are being  affected by a serious south-european crisis.


Sand is related with my childhood.

The idea of  re-creating objects and giving them an artistic dignity comes from Claes Oldengburg too. My practice is inspired by pop- art and I look with much interest at its  use of colors and design, and at  playing with objects from daily life.


After the illustration piece "Tree in the Rain", my practice entered into a new stage with a more engaged dimension and with engaging works inspired by ecological concepts and social issues.

This step  followed my college experience of last year and two pieces I did at that time. --The Sons of Crisis and A Friendship Project, the second one introducing the theme of how much space young people allow to friendship today  and the concept that only through friendship it will be possible to change ourselves and society.

Essays by Nicolas Bourriaud and Giacomo Fonzi on Relational Aesthetics were inspirational to develop  such  ideas in my present projects.


Along with this I begun to understand the importance of  writing messages  as well as  re-appropriating my literary background - a PhD in Italian literature and music - in an artistic way.


The piece"I want to see the world illuminated" summarizes the main aspects of this stage. It is an attempt at  engaging the viewer with the concept of recycling   (which I also did in my previous Ghristmas Project) by giving a metaphorical content to materials and at the same time  introducing another element  that is becoming important to me: light.


I placed my piece close to the main entrance of the college on account of  the perspective of a long corridor in front of it -- and I  received a positive feed-back,. Which, in turn,   gave me further ideas for experimenting with electric lights as well as with public spaces.

There are various examples of contemporary artists  using lead lights in their practice.  In this respect  it was useful to visit the "Bad Mad and Sad"  exhibition at the Freud Museum where a  led light piece by Tracy Emin was being shown.

To come to a conclusion my art practice is related with poetry, in the way in which I try to attract the viewer towards symbolic objects. Also irony and wit are important to me, mainly in/by reflecting my literary background.


The way in which I use different materials and media reflects an inter-disciplinary attitude, consisting in a range of strategies intended  to create a dialogue and an interacting with the audience - as I should like to involve it more and more into a performing practice.

My art practice / locate myself

 

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