work
Pinocchio, una storia contemporanea
| category | Graphics |
| subject | Political / Social, Human figure |
| tags | incisione, stampe, pinocchio, arte sociale, grafica d'arte, acquaforte, interpretazione, personaggi, fiaba, calcografia |
| base | 30 cm |
| height | 40 cm |
| depth | 0 cm |
| year | 2013 |
This graphic project dedicated to Pinocchio is divided into a series of eight calcographic engravings on zinc dedicated to the well-known fairy tale "The Adventures of Pinocchio", hand-printed in limited edition with chalcographic press on cotton paper. The matrices have been made with the technique of etching, an indirect way that by means of different nitric acid softness allows to obtain an infinite range of exquisitely pictorial tonal gradations, working on a wax-spring background to accentuate the softness of the strokes.
Although inspired by the well-known Collodian masterpiece, the images proposed by the artist are totally different from the iconographic tradition dedicated to the puppet through a satirical-symbolic key of reading. The most significant characters of the fairy tale have been alienated from their original context and reworked in order to symbolically personify a modern drama, enclosing behind the aesthetic data also a content of 'denunciation'. Far from being considered simple illustrations, the images do not tell any episode narrated by the book but reveal a sharp, sometimes playful, but always sadly grotesque vision of contemporary Italy. Pinocchio's fairy tale, which is still highly topical, has therefore been used as a pretext for talking about something that concerns the whole community.
Pinocchio, almost paradoxically, is the only character not to be represented, as a metaphor of the same viewer who meets and discovers what lies behind the various characters, meeting a personal emancipation. For this reason the presence of the puppet is symbolically reduced to the wooden box in the shape of a book that encloses the collection of prints, on which is set a mirror in which the viewer can reflect, becoming himself the protagonist and puppet. Even the talking cricket, symbol of morality, instead of being the protagonist of one of the prints reveals its tragic presence inside the box, enclosed in a resin bubble, suffocated by the threads of social manipulation and the loss of consciousness.
technique: chalcographic engraving, zinc plate, ceremonial and etching, printing on cotton paper
Although inspired by the well-known Collodian masterpiece, the images proposed by the artist are totally different from the iconographic tradition dedicated to the puppet through a satirical-symbolic key of reading. The most significant characters of the fairy tale have been alienated from their original context and reworked in order to symbolically personify a modern drama, enclosing behind the aesthetic data also a content of 'denunciation'. Far from being considered simple illustrations, the images do not tell any episode narrated by the book but reveal a sharp, sometimes playful, but always sadly grotesque vision of contemporary Italy. Pinocchio's fairy tale, which is still highly topical, has therefore been used as a pretext for talking about something that concerns the whole community.
Pinocchio, almost paradoxically, is the only character not to be represented, as a metaphor of the same viewer who meets and discovers what lies behind the various characters, meeting a personal emancipation. For this reason the presence of the puppet is symbolically reduced to the wooden box in the shape of a book that encloses the collection of prints, on which is set a mirror in which the viewer can reflect, becoming himself the protagonist and puppet. Even the talking cricket, symbol of morality, instead of being the protagonist of one of the prints reveals its tragic presence inside the box, enclosed in a resin bubble, suffocated by the threads of social manipulation and the loss of consciousness.
technique: chalcographic engraving, zinc plate, ceremonial and etching, printing on cotton paper
