uomo chiave versioni
The problem of how to depict torture in an art form took me seven years of bombardment from and assimilation of news and images from media outlets of tortured folks, beginning with the Cheney/Bush administration’s rendering suspects to Guantanamo, Cuba.
Then one day, I drew a series of figures with thick limbs, in various poses, engaged in performing various solitary acts in which my goal was to examine by trial and error the angles their appendages might take.
One of the figures was of a walking male. My friend Odette Leonelli observed that the stylistic look of the whole series was reminiscent of Giotto’s Adam as he was exiting the Biblical Garden of Eden with his main squeeze, Eve.
The Uomo Chiave series depicts a person tortured six ways: A key mechanism ia impaled onto the neck; An outside force winds him up as if he were spring-activated. The key's downward pressure makes him into a hunchback. His skin is pulled, attenuating into thin strands. A net imprisons him. A heavy industrial suit encloses him; It deprives him of any sensory perception; His fingers can’t feel; Embracing loved ones is futile. Strings encase him in one painting, which completes his isolation. The dystopian narrative is moderated by lively colors; Its theme could be called, “Beauty & Suffering.”
Pictographs found in the US’ Southwest region <youtu.be/oDu2rUoT2NM?t=297> influenced me in this Uome Chiave series.
Then one day, I drew a series of figures with thick limbs, in various poses, engaged in performing various solitary acts in which my goal was to examine by trial and error the angles their appendages might take.
One of the figures was of a walking male. My friend Odette Leonelli observed that the stylistic look of the whole series was reminiscent of Giotto’s Adam as he was exiting the Biblical Garden of Eden with his main squeeze, Eve.
The Uomo Chiave series depicts a person tortured six ways: A key mechanism ia impaled onto the neck; An outside force winds him up as if he were spring-activated. The key's downward pressure makes him into a hunchback. His skin is pulled, attenuating into thin strands. A net imprisons him. A heavy industrial suit encloses him; It deprives him of any sensory perception; His fingers can’t feel; Embracing loved ones is futile. Strings encase him in one painting, which completes his isolation. The dystopian narrative is moderated by lively colors; Its theme could be called, “Beauty & Suffering.”
Pictographs found in the US’ Southwest region <youtu.be/oDu2rUoT2NM?t=297> influenced me in this Uome Chiave series.
28cm (11”) x 28cm (11”) x .5cm (1/2”), plastico