pebble-shaped eggs, 1999-2011
Series of thirteen photographs, mixed techniques on packing paper, 36 x 36 cm.
Editions of 3.
“A selection of thirteen pebbles found on the beach, one for each of the years in which the search have been protracted, ovate in shape but one.”
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| pebble-shaped eggs, 1999-2011 |
Being that these and other artworks (examined on this other article) are exhibited right this month for the first time in the entirety of the complete series, I decided to redact this text as a possible in-depth analysis for the visitors.
“pebble-shaped eggs” is a series of thirteen artworks with an evident metaphysical inspiration and an intimist expression that is manifested through a silent atmosphere that has a mystical mark.
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| pebble-shaped eggs #01 |
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| pebble-shaped eggs #05 |
This is one of the few creations where I have let myself bear away by the unconscious expressionism, with no preconceived conceptual intent. For this reason I am going to draw this a posteriori analysis, recalling those sentiments that impelled me to the realization.
The multiform sea is one of the muses to which I own the most part of my artistic inspirations, fruit of meditations favoured by its expanse on the horizon during the seasons' cycle.
The pleasing relax enjoyed in lengthy instants spent on the beaches where I have found the pebbles, has been the favouring element; but the true reason that led me to translate them into artworks can be found in the very act of the choice to immortalize the lucky finds, that are the result of an accurate selection lasted thirteen years; it may seem banal, but it is not that simple to find pebbles symmetrically and regularly ovate.
That pacificatory enjoyment can be rediscovered also in the photographic artwork “walk and walk”, dating back to 2005 and shown altogether in the same exhibition, which is also bind to the poem “ligurian march”, written in 2006. For this reason I include them in this analysis.
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| walk and walk, 2005 |
“ligurian march”, poem, 6 March 2006
walk and walk
in a wadding hush
where infrequent sounds
compel raise from the sand
the sight of they
who look for, slack
some small treasures
cause the sole true one
is the calm that sun gives
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| pebble-shaped eggs #07 |
These thirteen “eggs”, symbols of life and regeneration, are a reference to the archetypical mysticism of the numerology existing since the prehistoric civilizations. I chose a configuration of twelve “eggs”, representing the habitual number of months, plus one that represents the imperfection, the astronomical incongruity between that subdivision and the route of Earth around Sun that is travelling by thirteen constellations, among which there is the omitted Ophiuchus, or the Serpentarius, the one who dominates the serpent, identified in the god of medicine Asclepius.
This is not a homage to esotericism: simply I like to make things clear and for this I feel myself absolutely exoteric.
The slightly imperfect thirteenth “egg” (the #7 placed in the composition's centre) represents what is being sacrificed, the divergence that becomes both holocaust and sacrament (to sacrifice: from Latin, to make sacred), both death and resurrection, with an obvious relation to the figure of Christ and the twelve apostles.
For this reason I consider “pebble-shaped eggs” an allegory of “Last Supper”.
I chose to call these artworks “pebble-shaped eggs” instead of the self-evident contrary “egg-shaped pebbles”, to add the concept of our cognitive limitations. The notions assumed with experience become like stones, or Gordian knots, they are complexes that lead us to believe according to preconceptions, while, as I always assert, our experiencing of reality should renovate at every moment.
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| pebble-shaped eggs #10 |
