RX Latero-lateral skull Print

The necessity of this job has risen since a long time in me, growing and pursuing me up to the moment of the practical realization. So much urgency and determination could not be due to the case, neither they imposed on me as a "normal" demand of artistic expression. I tried therefore to find the sense of this production, retracing the steps of a long illness that only recently seems to have satisfactorily resolved, and by connecting the fears and anxieties related to my body with the need to express myself through images. The serious illness I suffered for about four years is an inflammation to the eyes called with the physician-scientific term of "posterior uveitis"; this inflammation, providing detachment from the uvea of "mobile bodies" floating in the aqueous humor, makes it difficult to focus the particulars and may result, in some cases, even in blindness. I was nineteen years old when I was diagnosed this disease. Hospitalisation brought me a remarkable regression, mainly due to mistrust of doctors themselves in my healing possibilities: Unfortunately, in the early 80s, the uveitis was still little known and therapies were generic and experimental. Because of the frequent examinations I was subjected to, a lot of photographic and radiographic material about my body and my eyes was accumulating. This worried and fascinated me at the same time; needless to say I knew all on the physical structure of the eye. When I finally recovered, I felt the desire to "play" with this photographic and radiographic material transforming it artistically. I think this type of intervention had for me a magic meaning, similar to the paintings on the walls of the caverns of the primitive men. The paintings of scenes of hunting were interpreted by experts as a symptom of primitive men’s to desire to get the venison "magically", so appeasing fear of hunger. I too try to calm my anxieties, that is, the fear of a possible return of the disease, since, despite the many diagnostic tests, the cause of the inflammation has never been found. That's not all, in fact, after four years of illness with uncertain outcomes, alternating improvements and worsening, healing is not enough for me to be master of the situation: the manipulation of the radio-photographic material has perhaps this function, to psychologically reassure me that I am not victim of bad luck anymore, but I am in full control of the situation and there is nothing to worry about. I would say that for me producing these works was like dissolving an evil spell through a series of rituals. The chosen technique for this job is the photographic one. From the x-rays of the skull I separated the several tonalities of gray with a lith film, then I chose a commercial halftone pattern with a uniform decoration of many little leafs each one near the other, and finally with a sandwich of films and pattern I printed the all to contact on high contrast paper obtaining images in negative and positive from the whites and pure blacks. For processing negative retinal I used the same procedure except that I personally made the pattern, drawing on the acetate a capricious interlacement of curved lines. At first sight the result could recall to the mind a sindone, but the decoration relieves this effect. The passe-partout has the purpose to underline the falsehood of the composition, or better, the "distance" now taken by the chosen subject.

Printmaking:Engraving on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:13.8 W x 19.7 H x 0 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.