UOMINI IN CIMA AD UNA SPINA DORSALE, CAMMINANO SU UNA PIAZZA

Please, read the texts following the chronological presentation time of my works

The technology used for the sound was designed to suggest a possibly hazardous situation indicated by the absence of any form of infrastructure. The wheel, whether seen as an object or a subject interests me because it suggests the anthropological developments represented by the invention of the wheel with all that followed on from it. The wheel itself, in my view, is also a very human construct, an image of compassion. However I wouldn’t want to anthropomorphize it too much; perhaps it represents metamorphosis and sensory transparency.

The sheet directly below the “Tower” is formed by crossing the vertical axis with the geometry of the horizontal shapes. As with every other element, these forms attempt to harmonise themselves with the others and in this case might highlight the importance of “vertical depth”.

. On the opposite sides of the aforementioned wheels we find the loudspeakers. The placement of these elements is a response to my desire to induce the observer to circle the piece in an anti-clockwise direction, thereby producing unusual sound effects and creating a sense of disorientation given that the sound arrives from both the front and the back of the loudspeakers asymmetrically and in various intensities.
The sound aims to coalesce with the levels of density simultaneously: the density of the material used, of the image-sensation and of the sensory intensity of the experience.

One of the three men walking in the piazza is slightly projected outward, jutting from the piazza; this overhanging motion corresponds to a level of false wheels below; these wheel-like elements are positioned on the first level below the base of “The Tower”. The upper part of this ‘floor’ hosts the visible elements of the incorporated audio technology forming the columns supporting “The Tower” and the nuts and bolts that hold the false wheels.

The figures that are seen walking across the piazza are made from copper wire, which is wound around the waist area once or more times leaving the arms extended in various postures; here the copper strands are woven together in a number of dynamic poses transforming the interactions typical of any piazza into an operatic melodrama. The contrasting geometric shapes formed by the arms/head and legs/motion, inclining slightly towards the base, provide a shifting perception of vertical space.

If we take a literal view of this piece we could say that the “piazza” is situated above the backbone. But if we ‘listen” visually to this work, in the same way in which we listen to a piece of music (which is to say not as a series of notes that follow one another but instead as one, complete work that is not dependent on the imposition of any kind hierarchy) everything is disconnected but at the same time united. In reality the piazza and the other elements meld into each other in semantic terms, giving life to a series of visions contemporarily, absent of any hierarchical aspects whatsoever.

the control exerted by the different shapes and at the same time, a material that grows, that feeds upon itself to take on new and different forms as it develops. The material has a mind of its own; it tells you what you should do with it.
Looking at “the Tower”, which has a rectangular base, we can see that on the smaller side the curved direction taken by the paper is symmetrical in its articulation – the upper half was constructed separately and then slotted into specially designed wooden slats on the lower section. This procedure was chosen for structural reasons as well as for its shape and to contrast the so-called arboreal concept of growth that would normally expect roots at the bottom, followed by branches and finally leaves.

The various shapes, first cut out and then placed vertically one on top of the other act in concert to build up a bone-like structure that is the image of a spine only apparently suspended in space; I would describe it more as a transparency, an ethereal presence. I would speak about control;

In the construction of the part of the sculpture which, to simplify matters, we will call “The Tower” there are approximately two hundred (200) variations in the vertical plane on the left and the same number on the right; bearing in mind that each piece consists of four sheets of paper with the same, identical shape, what we have is a total of 800 layers of paper on each side which have been positioned bearing in mind tensile necessity and their position in relation to the horizontal as well as the vertical plane. This requires, therefore, a continuous series of decisions which cannot be separated from sensation of tension and a very specific meditative state.