The exhibition in the gallery has ended.
I was really happy to finally see these sculptures on display, it is nice to feel the powerful energy that people transmit to me after they have seen them. As if suddenly all the desire to communicate and share thoughts and moods manages to reach interlocutors ready to listen and debate.
A moment of great gratification
This is one of the strong and impactful faces that I studied for the Mass series. I wanted to compose a series of portraits that in this case do not touch each other, do not look at each other and do not create relationships, but which will probably share the same wall.
Exhibiting together some sculptures from this series made me appreciate the bonds and relationships that the various works have created. I knew there was going to be a common thread and being able to see it in this exhibit really got me excited.
June for the Collectors Night in Pietrasanta, one of my latest works will be on display at the Paolaraffo Arte Contemporanea art gallery.
This is a small detail
People who have not lived, ethereal figures whose life has slipped into their hands and where only a shadow of their passage has remained.
In a large metal structure there is a small cross-section of the time that has passed, where inside it floating and unconscious faces establish relationships trying to be remembered.
http://www.paolaraffo.it/2022/06/03/θάνατος-αθάνατος-solo-la-morte-e-immortale/
ΘΆΝΑΤΟΣ ΑΘΆΝΑΤΟΣ – SOLO LA MORTE È IMMORTALE
Sabato 4 giugno alle ore 18:30, Paola Raffo Arte Contemporanea inaugura la stagione estiva e la Collector Night n.7 con la mostra collettiva θάνατος αθάνατος – Solo la morte è immortale.
L’esposizione presenterà le opere di Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, Antonino Bove, Andrea Berni e, in anteprima nazionale, il documentario “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death” della regista candidata al Premio Oscar Helen Whitney.
La morte psicologicamente è altrettanto importante della nascita e, come la nascita, fa parte integrante della vita.
Carl Gustav Jung
http://www.paolaraffo.it/2022/06/03/θάνατος-αθάνατος-solo-la-morte-e-immortale/
From Saturday 4 June one of my latest works will be on display at the Paola Raffo art gallery.
This is a small detail
Individuals as parts of an unstoppable mechanism with a goal that is anything but human. Lives used, standardized and extrapolated from the beauty of life.
A series of white heads with worn, destroyed faces reduced to nothing but bones represent the suffering that people are willing to pay to stay within this gigantic mechanism.
Floral V
When I work on this series, I let myself be carried away by the compositional lines, the shapes and the beauty of the material I am using. These are true liberating moments where my connection with the work that is being born reaches an intense depth. The thousand details that nature offers me and that remain in my mind, are translated and transformed by my hands.
The beauty of the stone has always fascinated me, their layering their slow and huge movements. They have always been a huge source of inspiration. Like history books they tell incredibly distant times in their layers. Apparently immobile beings but in constant evolution and change.
"Waiting"
Knowing that you have to do something but do not have the energy, the lack of desire to get involved in taking the first step, to expose ourselves and meet the other.
Think that it will be a matter of time and that sooner or later something will happen, remain motionless so as not to risk anything.
An eternal and lonely wait.
"Feel"
This is the first sculpture I made in the "Indifferents" series.
A very important sculpture for me that marked a change on an artistic and personal level. In my artistic career there are sculptures that have marked a change of direction, a growth.
Seeing them again makes me feel a certain pride, a nice past challenge that is pleasant to remember.
"Give up"
There are days when my mind wanders in search of a purpose, a reason to face the day, overwhelmed by the realities of the world I lock myself motionless in the covers. Seated and heavy, I abandon myself, letting myself be carried away by the passage of time.
This sculpture was the first raku attempt made a few years ago. It was fascinating to see this sculpture born, this technique is truly incredible. The cooking of the glazing takes place so quickly and everything is surrounded by heat, flames and a lot of smoke. It seems incredible that the earth can be so powerful.
Restrained
"Indifferents" series
My studio
My studio
Seeing the heads of my research piled up in a corner and covered with dust caught my attention. The way in which the dust falls on the surfaces covering entire portions is all very fascinating and melancholy.
This is one of the sculptures I made for my "Mass" series, the dust that settles on it in a completely random way caught my attention. A sign that made me remember how time passes despite everything that happens in the world. The madness of man, his worries and his greed are not such as to scratch the passage of time. Perhaps living a life without stress, pressure and haste could make us read the world and our time very differently.
Today the light in my studio is beautiful, the white of the marble shines and lights up. A pleasure to be immersed in this beautiful atmosphere.
Studio details
In this uncertainty period, the view of the world around me is veiled by a thick fog of conflicting and misleading information. The general misunderstanding of the situation, incalculable and unpredictable have made more difficult to distinguish the few certainties that surround me. In the people around I always see a strong selfishness, but also an indifference that at first made me feel a nervous anger. With the passing of the weeks the strange relationships created between people, the new fears, and a desire not to think the worst, are showing me an aspect that I had overlooked. The strong desire to forget what is happening for a while, take a break and go back to something certain and recognizable, to old habits, to family rituals. At the same time it is absurd not to exploit all this precisely to evolve and really change things. The possibility of a great change is strong and real, but are we willing to upset our lifestyle, our habits, our comforts, flaws and our certainties?
Small ink drawings from my latest "Mass" series.
While drawing and designing new works and studying new possibilities of expression, I noticed the intensity of these small sketches. So I looked for small antique frames and after some work, I was able to find the right combination.
This is a detail from my latest charcoal study. Drawing, seeing nature and the sky kept me away from the tension of this time. But inside me there is the feeling of being lost, in an eternal fall where it is almost impossible to find a foothold. In my eyes the world is changing at an incredible speed, everything is confused and insecure.
These are details of my Floral VI sculpture.
Interpret the nature with this piece was something magic. I felt like a river inside me, and I saw the work evolve in my hands without realizing it. Even some portions that at the beginning I didn't consider and born completely spontaneously, started to remind me of something I had already seen. Cuts, splits, textures, all solutions that I had already observed in nature and that have always fascinated me .... I still have a lot to learn.
While I was working on this sculpture I reflected on the word "normality", and on the meaning that is attributed to it when it comes to human being. What is normal? And why is it so desired? The idea of having a happy and stereotyped future for many of us is irresistible, our society, our economic system, our family, direct us in this direction but in the end why do we care so much?
Break during a working day, it's nice to feel the satisfaction of the job that is being born under a beautiful sky and sun.
This is a small detail of my new project which is finishing to take shape.
A work that talks about the role of people stuck in a pyramid structure, where life, love and passion are not in the first place. It is a theme that I have been following for a long time and that never ceases to be in my thoughts, it evolves and takes on unexpected characteristics. Now I feel a strong concern about what will happen, about the choices that will be made for the good of the economy, our only thought. I am worried about an impulsive response to this situation, not thought with
These sculptures try to create an exchange between something natural and something artificial. A union, a collaboration, a coexistence, something that we will have to start considering, something to accept. We must stop feeling superior to everything and everyone. We are part of nature, we do not possess it and we are definitely not superior. We are composed of the same elements, the same substances. Finding a balance is the only solution to feel fundamental again and finally part of a whole.
This is a charcoal drawing part of a series that I started some time ago.
I decided to post it for the series of feeling in this strange period, I have the sensation to be overwhelmed by situations that do not belong to me, I'm feel prisoners, forced to live between idea and reality.
My only dream now is to start look some other way in our life, not always with the same economic ideology pat. We have the opportunity to think about who we are, about the beauty of the relationships, of being in the sunlight, the freshness of the air and the beauty of a starry sky. All things that until a few months ago were obvious. It would be nice not to feel alone when everything will be finished.
I've always liked small frames, like small pieces that form a large mosaic. Suddenly I decided to use them. I have been making small drawings for some time now and why not combine things? For me the result is a nice surprise, I hope for you too!
"Restrained II" from Indifferents series.
I'm really happy that this sculpture was selected for the Contemporary Art Exhibition "Blossom of Rebirth" in the UNESCO Creative Cities Conference 2019 in Fabriano, Italy.
I keep beautiful memories of the artists, the organization and the wonderful city.
Sometimes I feel oppressed and crushed by the rules of formality and the enormous bureaucratic chaos of our society. Chaos that eats our time and takes away our uniqueness and the beauty of being all the same and all different from each other.
A day like today I had enough, I wanted to release all the tension that I felt on my shoulders. I took the first piece of wood in front of me and I started working. More I worked more I felt my head was becoming lighter and my spirit and impetus were finally finding a balance.
Floral IV was born.
Ink drawing from my sketch book. It's been a while since I used an ink pen, and I have to admit it's very nice and some interesting things come out.
"Restrained"
This is a detail of one of my sculptures that are part of the "Indifferents" series.
When I did this work I was so caught up in the creative moment that I made a huge and trivial mistake. A mistake that turned out to be a real challenge, in the end it gave the sculpture something more, something that increased its strength.
This sculpture is in terracotta, a beautiful material with many rules, definitely a material to work without haste.
Obviously I was driven by the enormous curiosity to see the finished sculpture, I skipped some passages and the result was devastating. I opened the oven and everything was in a thousand pieces, completely destroyed. I felt lost and disoriented. From the same day I started to reconstruct it piece by piece finding myself to appreciate the beautiful natural fractures. I decided to use them, I realized that they were becoming an added value.
After many years without drawing, two years ago I decided to start again to fill a void I felt inside. I have to say that I've got a taste for it, I felt more free to express myself and it's the most beautiful thing for a creative person. After many exercises, tips and experiences, last year I decided to do something more than a sketch. I did a series of charcoal drawings based on the emotions and moods I was working on the sculptures.This is one of those drawings.
This is a Floral V detail, I fell in love with this texture left by the disc, it has something incredibly natural. The rigidity of a mechanical tool with the fortuity and creativity manages to open an unexpected way.
My friend Marijus Petrauskas made this photo during the exciting sculpture symposium in Alytus, Lithuania 2016.
A wonderful experience, great friends and excellent art.
At the end of the symposium my work was placed at the entrance of the museum dedicated to Anzelmas Matutis, a Lithuanian writer.
I was in the studio, and while looking for the right marble for this sculpture I came across a beautiful red spot of a natural gap. The piece was beautiful, a pure white and warm enriched by a vein that changed its color from a red to a warm gray typical of calacatta marble. I realized that it was perfect for what I wanted to do and to try to express a series of feelings that I felt on me. The vein and the red color could veil the figure and enrich it with the wonderful casualness of nature.
Submerged from "Indifferents" series
This is one of the drawings in my sketchbook, I don't know what I was trying to do, I often find myself drawing figures without realizing that my head is completely disconnected. It is nice to let yourself go, after all, something positive can come out.
"Impassible" from the "Indifferents" series
With this sculpture I let myself be fascinated by an old beam of a house, playing with the natural color of wood and the varnishes that have been used over time.
I wanted to focus on the strong egoism and self-centeredness that is a fundamental part of the human being, the fruit of our social structure, and the feeling of being imprisoned in a structure that we built a long time ago and which is becoming an integral part of our being. An apathy and resignation that makes us helpless in front of the cage of veils that has bound us for a long time.
My sculpture "Floral VI", from the "Natural Inspiration" series was selected along with twenty-four other works from 1600 proposals. I am really happy to participated and had exhibit my work in the R-EVOLUTION contemporary art groupexibition at the historic and beautiful Hospital of the Innocents in Florence
A small sketch from my sketchbook.
A beautiful time. Make art, observe the sea, smell it and be caressed by that warm wind. Pure joy, magic.
Sculpting a monumental sculpture in Lebanon together with other artist friends was beautiful.
Lebanon sculpture symposium 2015
Tamed II
Raku ceramic sculpture with copper glaze.
