SOLO EXHIBITION: CONTROL

FINAL PIECES

'One week a month.This week I lost it'

'...and so I had an argument with Leroy Johnson, from Fame'

'The number 9 theory'

'I hate flags, therefore, I made my own one'

'Lacking Control'

Throughout the realisation of these various and different pieces, my aim has been to explore and investigate my thought and emotions, related to my past experiences and memories. A sort of 'story telling' in which the work is accompanied by a variety of tangible objects, in order to make visible that thin line which divides 'yesterday from today'. The past always makes itself present in the today.

Therefore, my intention has been to explore this relationship between 'past and present', liberating thoughts, lettings things be, without control, but at the same time being aware of the actions expressed, through the experimentation of different media: what it seems to be appropriate to define the 'uncontrollable control'.

EXPERIENCING DUNGENESS

A very interesting and surreal place, that I would advice to anyone to see at list once in life. While visiting Derek Jarman's house, during a field trip organised by the university, I decided to 'Experience Dungeness' taking some photographs of the stimulating surrounding. Great escapade.

VIDEO PERFORMANCE PMT

This video performance is a representation of a variety of 'uncontrollable' moods and emotions experienced by women during their monthly periods physical and psychological changes (pre-menstrual tension). The sound of the violin is used as a metaphor to the different humours felt; the white trousers are the tangible object, the concrete proof of a moment that happened, and that has gone.

FINAL PIECE

'One week a month. This week I lost it'

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PERFORMANCE

This is a performance that express the action of liberating thoughts, leaving the tools as the guilty evidence of the happening.

It emphasise the importance of the performance which is hidden behind a piece: the idea is to liberate thoughts, having this tools at one's disposal, so that the viewer is able to imagine the action happened, and eventually feel the urge to do the same thing.

FINAL PIECE

'Lacking Control'

OBSESSIVE THOUGHT

With this piece the intention is to demonstrate 'the power of the number 9', that you can add and multiply as many time a s you want, (like is shown on the board) having as a results always 9. Together with the visual piece there is also a sound track, in which is recorded the sound of this haunting thought accompanied by the sound of the chalks on the board, in order to evoke the experience of discovering.

FINAL PIECE

'The number 9 theory'

Dedicated to 'LEROY JOHNSON'

This piece is a 'tangible testimony' of a very peculiar experience had more than 10 years ago, when I found myself having an argument with the dancer that during my teens was one of my idol, Gene Anthony Ray, alias 'Leroy Johnson', who was very famous during the 80s, from a TV programme called 'Fame'.

We had a chance to meet several time in a bar were I was working at the time, in Bologna, in Italy. Therefore, various vicissitudes had already happened between us; so the story is that one night I went home after work and strange but true he was there, (my flatmates brought him home) in my own house, wearing my bathrobe, on top of his clothes. It was question of minutes and my patience was gone, so that I had an argument with him. The bathrobe was the last straw!

I kept this bathrobe for many years, waiting to use it in a way that would have give to it the right importance. That is the reason that made it a piece of art; it became a testimony of a very peculiar experience that can be also remembered as a tragic/funny story.

This explains the choice of the title, used as a brief suggestion for the viewer.

FINAL PIECE

'...and so I had an argument with Leroy Johnson, from Fame'

NEW PROJECT: SEPTEMBER 2010

This project started during the summer, looking at the work done previously and trying to understand it in terms of DRAWING.

The intention was to understand the rust in terms of drawing, using the 'frottage' technique.

Exploring this technique, I started also to think how this could be developed in larger scale, also using other objects, bigger objects, everyday objects...

...starting with a TREE. I thought it would be interesting to make a reproduction of a tree trunk on canvas, using the 'frottage' technique.

The sarcastic title was inspired by the importance of HUMOR in art, being very influenced by the work of Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys; but it is also fundamental to give to the viewer a certain direction, while looking at the work.

FINAL PIECE

"I hate flags, therefore, I made my own one"

LOOKING AT THE WORK OF:

JOSEPH BEUYS

I have been studying this artist while considering him one of the most inspiring and eclectic figure within the world of art. His concept of 'SOCIAL SCULPTURE', that art can alter society and that 'EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST', worked towards a project that, as he believed, could lead to a transformation of society through the release of popular creativity.

"...SOCIAL SCULPTURE - How we mold and shape the world in which we live: SCULPTURE AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS; EVERYONE AN ARTIST."

Joseph Beuys

FLUXUS

One of the major international network of artists, composers and designers noted to bring together a variety of artistic disciplines in the 1960s.

Their freedom in approaching the experimentation of various art forms is very inspiring. FLUXUS has been a great influence within my work, especially within their way of encouraging the 'DO-IT-YOURSELF' aesthetic theory, valuing simplicity over complexity.

MARCEL DUCHAMP

One of the major exponent of Avant-Garde Art. I believe that his work shifted Art to another level, influencing the all development of post WWI Western Art.

His subversive actions changed the world of art for ever, and I strongly believe that if Duchamp did not exist, art today would have been very different.

Humor was also one of his major characteristic, able to change the perception towards a work of art, especially within his 'ready made'.

'The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.'

Marcel Duchamp

DUCHAMP, BEUYS AND I

This is a sink found in my work place, and as soon as I saw it I straight away had the image of the 'complete set', considering that a paragraph of my thesis is focused on two of the artists that inspired me all along the course of my BA final year: Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys. Referring to Duchamp's urinal and Beuys' bathtub, I thought it would have been a fantastic idea completing the bathroom set within the world of art of the XX-XXI centuries. It is an idea that follows the importance of the humor present in art, especially emphasised by avant-garde artists such as Duchamp and Beuys.

'Fountain', 1917

No Title, 1960

'Finally we have the whole set!', 2011