THE ARC OF TIME
This painting is part of a new series dedicated
to the "effects of time" on matter and on the human psyche. Time
transforms, consumes, ruins, embellishes... the colors of sunset are
more suggestive than those of dawn, the colors of autumn warmer and richer than
those of spring. Matter is transformed, modified, modeled, deteriorated but
also enriched by the history it contains ... And so it is for human beings:
time reduces strength but increases wisdom, the sweet fruit of experience
matures slowly only with the passing years.
The background of the canvas alludes to the
work of time on every natural surface: the oxidation of copper, the cracks in
the wood, the rust of iron ... I used very special products, which activate an
oxidation process on the canvas, producing the formation of real rust and
verdigris.
In the transparency you can see the "arc of time" that crosses both paintings: a light and nuanced trace, barely
perceptible, which unifies this diptych and underlines the ascending (not
descending!) path of personal evolution over the years.
Then I drew the complex "mental map"
of the effects of time on our psyche, a network of symbols, signs, writings,
connections and references, which builds a pictorial and calligraphic universe
of meanings. These paths and "mental maps" have drawn inspiration
from my experience as a clinical psychologist, during which I have been able to
investigate the meaning of our individual and collective evolutionary paths,
with their "fractures" and, sometimes, dramatic interruptions. The
pictorial flow of symbols follows the ripples of the background, to underline
the "stratifications" of our experience over time, with the deep
wounds that sometimes mark the warp of a life accentuating its
uniqueness.