Gabbiani - Seagulls Print

In this painting, Emanuela Volpe transforms the words of the poem "Gabbiani" by Vincenzo Cardarelli into an abstract calligram, where the text emerges as a weave of signs and colors. The intense blue of the background, which evokes the vastness of the sea and the quiet of the horizon, contrasts with the vivid orange of the words, which seem to float and flow on the canvas, visually recalling the incessant movement of the flight of seagulls. Cardarelli's words, which speak of a life grazed like a flight over the water, are here reinterpreted through a pictorial language that reproduces their dynamism. The irregular and descending movement of the letters recalls the movement of the waves. The tension between the desire for quiet and the force of destiny, the central theme of the poem, is represented through the chromatic contrast and the structure of the text, which becomes increasingly indistinct, as if it were fading into the vastness of the ocean. Cardarelli's seagulls, creatures in perpetual flight in search of peace but destined for storms, find here a visual translation in pictorial signs that express a sense of restlessness and fragility. Text of poem: "Gabbiani" by Vincenzo Cardarelli Non so dove i gabbiani abbiano il nido, ove trovino pace. Io son come loro, in perpetuo volo. La vita la sfioro com'essi l'acqua ad acciuffare il cibo. E come forse anch'essi amo la quiete, la gran quiete marina, ma il mio destino è vivere balenando in burrasca.