SUSPENDED BEAUTY

When I went to see the work of Pae White at Manchester Art Gallery a few years back, I was captivated by the beauty of her delicate installations. I still find them so fascinating...

Pae White, Grotto

To find out more about Pae White 'In no particular order' exhibition please click here

                                                    

YOU ARE TWO-FACED...

These are images of the reverse of some of my stitching works. I think they are visually very interesting considering that the patterns created are unintentional.

VERSATILE THREADS

thread on canvas, work in progress, 20x20cm

CARVING NATURE

I admire the work of Yoshihiro Suda, it is craftsmanship taken to the highest level.

Only those who look closely enough will appreciate the amazing reproduction of...an ordinary leaf.

"Yoshihiro Suda is based in Tokyo. 

He creates hyper-realistic flowers and weeds from wood."

"He situates his pieces in surprising places, growing unexpectedly out of pristine gallery walls and pushing up out of forgotten corners. His interventions reveal the beauty in the simple and apparently unconsidered."

Both Yoshihiro Suda and Susan Collis (please see previous post) participated in 'Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft' exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (13 November 2007 to 17 February 2008).

SUN & ROSES...

Similarly to Collis, I too began to look at the complete replacement of the medium (of paint) with a visual impression of its elements (colour and physicality/texture). I suppose that here the ambition lay in the attempt to highlight the qualities of something which is no longer before the accustomed eye; to reconstruct a memory of it.

This is an example of my work:

 'Alcuni uomini trasformano il sole in un puntino giallo, 

                                    altri trasformano un puntino giallo in sole'

                                        thread on fabric, 20 x 20cm, SOLD

'I’d rather have white roses on my table
than diamonds on my neck'
thread on linen, 20 x 20cm, SOLD

(I have just thought about the title I gave to this piece above and would like to add:

'...specially if the table is by Susan Collis!')

'TROJAN HORSE'

Here is the amazing work of Susan Collis, one of the most inspiring artists I came across during my Ba at Manchester Metropolitan University. I thought I would include her in my writings because I strongly feel that the concepts and ideas behind my own paintings, and three-dimensional drawings, relate, in some ways, to what Collis tries to communicate with her installations.

The beautification of the banal, the re-staging of the elements, the victory of the over-looked...that is what I am talking about!

"Susan Collis's work might at first glance appear to be out of place in an exhibition, and you have to look closely to discover it. Mundane things, seemingly left behind from a previous exhibition, are actually meticulously worked by hand."

Susan Collis, 'Since I Fell For You', 
2010, 100% Cotton, 2002, 
Boiler suit, embroidery thread, 
63 x 183/4in.

'Since I Fell For You' (detail)

Susan Collis, 'Enter, Us', 2009
Screw made of  18 carat white gold,
White sapphire and turquoise

Susan Collis, 'Trojan horse', 2007, 

wooden table, diamond, fresh water pearl, oyster pearl, 

mother of pearl, conch shell, Brazilian opal, white opal, 

white howlite, magnecite, gold mother of pearl, 

cultured pearl, agate, orange calcite 

'Trojan horse' (detail)

STITCHING DROPS

My aim is to mimic pictorial accidents, or occurrences, by replacing altogether the most fundamental medium; in my paintings, in fact, there is no trace of paint yet its presence is still traceable. The explanation to this lies in the long process of combining and then eliminating, one by one, all the media involved in my work at a particular moment in time, until paint itself was no longer needed, for its essence had been transposed onto the other compositional elements of my work, most of all: thread.

'Zeffiretto', thread on linen, 20 x 20cm, SOLD

'The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain', 

Thread on canvas, 92 x 92cm

As an important and foremost contingent aspect of my practice, time is essential for the development of my ideas of imitation, however, it becomes the contrasting element of my work, for the execution of a paint drop, which is normally created in seconds, takes much longer when reproduced by stitching its features on canvas. 


'The Fountain of Good', 
Thread on canvas, 
20 x 20cm, SOLD

I wanted to use paint's density and texture, but without actually painting.