Italo Calvino wrote:
“The eye doesn't see things but figures of things that mean other things.”
The objects we surround ourselves with speak about us more than we imagine.
The house we live in, along with its furniture and its objects, creates a visual narrative about who we are and the experiences that brought us here.
Objects, through the context we place them in, can evoke unexpected emotions and sensations, entirely personal and different for each one of us, or they can also provoke feelings that unite us.
This "subtext" of the object, this seemingly hidden meaning connected to perception and the energy of things, this concept of the object and its representation as a tool to understand ourselves and be understood by the world, has always been central to my research and practice.
Hence my interest in still life, the genre dedicated par excellence to representing objects.
Print "Uncommon by nature - Scene III" - cm 52x32
Ever since my studies at Venice’s Accademia di Belle Arti, still life has fascinated me.
Instead of the classic flowers and fruit baskets, I've chosen the objects that surrounded me during my childhood in restoration workshops.
Plasters, brushes, small glass bottles containing solvents, and other tools of the trade have become part of my personal "mythology," along with the inevitable pedestals.
Print "Plaster Senses - The Listening" - cm23x29
Anatomical plaster casts have particularly captured my attention, not only for their beautiful shapes but especially for the tactile quality of plaster, an extraordinary material creating an almost ethereal visual effect.
I've aimed to reproduce this feeling through drawing, deliberately allowing the pure, full whiteness of plaster to remain visually dominant. Drawings of these studies and forms (mostly taken from Michelangelo's David) have become part of the Golden Prints collection.
The first subject I chose to present is “The Listening,” something increasingly rare to find.
A new series of prints now available online
If you're wondering why I wanted to talk about the theme of the object and its meaning (or rather, the meaning each of us attributes to it), it's because I wanted to introduce you to two new subjects from the Golden Prints series, faithfully replicating my original drawings of still lifes and plaster casts.
The subjects now available on the website are the plaster cast print "Sensi di gesso - L’ascolto" (Plaster Senses - The Listening) and the still life "Inconsueta di natura - Scena III" (Uncommon by Nature - Scene III).
Discover the new Golden Prints
What better way to conclude this article than with another quote by Calvino:
“Those who have an eye, find what they're looking for even with their eyes closed.”
Calvino, 1963, Marcovaldo
