ERODED PANORAMA / MIRROR
2020
40 x 15 x h50 cm
Calcarenitic stone, concrete, marble powder
Self Production
The series is a research and experiment-based work that stems from the observation of the architectural antiquities of Salento.
The calcarenite stone of Salento is here employed to function as an allegory of time and the brutal grip it exerts on matter and flesh.
The calcarenitic sediments transcend the mere sensorial stimulus they may elicit to become a symbolic narration of territorial and sentimental belonging.
As a traditional salentinian material, it has extensively been extracted for architectural and sculptural purposes, and itself progressively carved the landscape and the surrounding social fabric.
Nothing is fixed not the land, not the stone nor the artworks: by integrating water and compressed air with traditional sculptural techniques, the natural process of erosion is accelerated and maximized, resulting in raw and textured sculptures that keep on striving for that mercurial state.
They testify how the artist works towards a balanced state in the dialogue between nature and man, whose practice oscillates from the incendiary anthropization of land to the most submissive imitation.
However, it is the musk and lichens which will colonize the surface and the crevices of the calcarenite, change its color and form according to the degree of humidity, no man-made intervention required.