BB Contest Awards 3

Sep11

The third Bizzarro Bazar Contest has ended, and once again the contributions have been many, original and completely extravagant!

Without further ado, let’s scroll through the special mentions right up to the winning works, which I really struggled to select given the overall quality of the works. Let’s go!

Let’s start with La marci who, inspired by my article on the flea circus, built one for herself.

(La marci: Instagram)

Sambuco bursts in with a bit of healthy rock’n’roll, by customizing an electric guitar. Gabba gabba hey!

(Sambuco: Instagram)

Paraphrasing Forrest Gump we could say: “Bizzarro Bazar is like a can of tuna: you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Lapeggiocosa finds it out the hard way:

(Lapeggiocosa: Instagram)

C.G. decided to depict an idyllic family scene: there is the branded umbrella, there’s me taking a bath, there is a VERY undressed young lady sunbathing, and a little boy who scurries off his jar of formalin . (The only euphemistic detail is those unlikely body-builder shoulders, as the only gymnastics I ever do is move books from shelf to table and back.)

Gloria Ramones De Lazzari alias Glokyramone, taking inspiration from the macrocephalous skull of my logo, imagined what kind of child he would have become if he had survived and grown healthy: “his notable defect would not have stopped him in the least from becoming a classic late-1800s/early-1900s little brat.”

(Glokyramone: Instagram)

Flavio Masiero told me that he had little time to work on his submission, because he had to leave for a trip — and what do you do when you have little time?
Of course, you make a collage on an authentic coffin lid!

(Flavio Masieroo: Instagram)

Chiara Scarpitta, known online as Kiria Eternalove, has written a delightful story inspired by the Punished Suicide, accompanying it with a drawing.
I find it moving that after more than a century and a half the story of this anonymous girl still touches many people deeply; you can read The girl with the sand-colored hair (in Italian) by clicking here.

(Kiria Eternalove: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)

Milla, tattoo artist, created this poetic psychedelic brain.
I don’t know if the subtext is “Yeah, man, Bizzarro Bazar is, far out, like, you know, a fantastic trip, bro“, or “Bizzarro Bazar can cause severe mycosis“. But in both cases, it’s stuff that needed to be said.

(Milla: Instagram)

The contribution of Greta Fantini, both sensual and a little gory, has appeared censored on social media. Here I can finally show it to you in all its explosive… mammary charge.

(Greta Fantini: Facebook, Instagram)

Andrè El Ragno Santapaola, wundermaker and winner of the last contest with his “Bizzarroscope”, made a short stop-motion animation: this is what happens in a wunderkammer when everyone is asleep!

(Elragno’s Weird Stuff World: Facebook, Instagram)

The gifted painter and illustrator Chiara Olmi Rol gives us two beautiful and melancholic Siamese twins:

(Chiara Olmi Rol: Facebook, Instagram)

Conjoined twins, this time thoracopagus, are also the protagonists of this beautiful floral artwork by Pamela Annunziata:

(Pamela Annunziata: Instagram)

Emanuela Sommi, with a fantastic and refined collage, invites us to take flight on a bizarre hot air balloon towards unexplored shores.
Even though, to be honest, I would be a little hesitant to get on board, given the gorgonic hair and that not-so-friendly hyena.

(Emanuela Sommii: Facebook)

Chiara Toniolo decreed that mine is “a mind that must be preserved“, and so she literally put it under glass. She even included in her beautiful painting my cat, Barnum — who, as usual, seems completely untroubled. Bloody ungrateful little rascal.

(Chiara Toniolo: Facebook, Instagram)

Here is a classy mini title sequence for the blog, by Contu!

(Contu: Instagram)

The illustrator Matteo Moscarelli portrays me as some kind of creepy Cryptkeeper, inside a studio-wunderkammer that is a delight for the eyes.

(Matteo Moscarelli: Facebook, Instagram)

WINNERS

3rd Prize

And we got to the winners!

The third prize goes to Gaberricci. At first glance his work, a reinterpretation of a famous Banksy stencil, may seem simpler than many others. But the idea behind it is very powerful, and I’d like to quote the words with which the author presented it to me:

I make no claim of having created anything particularly “wonderful”, and indeed my homage to such an iconic work might seem a bit cheesy. But I wanted to create something more “conceptual” which, moreover, signals a continuity that seems clear to me between you and Banksy: you both explore the territory of the uncanny, in order to suggest how much the imposition of a ” normality” is an overbearing and deeply reactionary act. If it’s quite simple to recognize this revolutionary nature in the work of the artist from Bristol, I believe that it goes more “unnoticed” in your extraordinary work of exploration and popularization, which goes well beyond the mere “Here are some extreme curiosities”. It is this aspect of what you do (and for which I thank you) that I have tried to highlight with this simple image: a guerrilla, as the writing says, conducted by throwing wonders in our face. Which is something we need.

This comparison with Banksy is way too generous, but the resistance against the flattening power of the Norm is a theme I care a lot about, and I am happy that someone emphasized it so explicitly.

(Gaberricci’s blog, in Italian, is Suprasaturalanx)

2nd Prize

For Umberto Eco, wunderkammern are essentially “visual lists”, encyclopedic inventories of wonder.
Elena Simoni (a.k.a. psychonoir) has also assembled in her work some sort of compendium of many of the topics I covered on this blog: martyrs, relics, Victorian hairworks, cannibal forks, tsantsas, taxidermies, monstrous dildos, and much more.
Just like a real cabinet of wonders, which is often pervaded by a certain horror vacui, her drawing is overflowing with detail, so much so that the gaze gets lost in it. Yet the graceful female figure and the delicate trait make the atmosphere welcoming: an invitation to always follow one’s curiosity, however eccentric, and to let oneself sink into wonder.

(Elena Simoni Psychonoir: Facebook, Instagram)

1stPrize

Diletta De Santis wrote to me:

Bizzarro Bazar has always been a source of great inspiration for me, so much so that just last year I founded my own company that has the ambition to become a Wunderkammer of sorts.
I was keen to make my tribute to your work, and I wondered what would happen if you, Ivan Cenzi, were one of the top pieces of a Wunderkammer.
So I combined my master’s degree in digital arts and my (former) job as a restorer to turn you into a wonderful reliquary, one I would definitely buy if only it existed!

The result of her effort — a mixture of painting and photographic processing — is nothing short of spectacular, thus earning the first prize: from now on, call me Saint Bizzarro!

(Diletta De Santis, Mundi Wunderkammer: Facebook, Instagram)

If you liked some work in particular, be sure to show your appreciation to the authors in the comment section.
In the coming weeks I will also post these beautiful works on social networks.
Thanks again to all the participants, you have brightened my days; I hope you enjoyed it too!

BB Contest Awards – 2

Sep16

The second edition of the Bizzarro Bazar Contest is over.

In writing this, I realized I don’t know a way to express my gratitude to all candidates that’s not boring. So just take it for granted that you’ve warmed the heart of an old seeker of oddities.
Let’s not beat around the bush, you’re here to see what the deliciously deviant minds of your fellow readers have come up with.

Like last year, the entries were so many, and of such high quality, that they made it awfully hard for me to select just three winners.
So the warning stays the same: what you’re about to see are the honorable mentions — at the incpontestable discretion of the Jury, that is me — but a round of applause should go to all those who don’t appear in this limited space. Over the next few weeks I shall find a way to make it even by sharing on social media all the submitted works, along with the info about the authors.

So, let’s kick off our weird parade!

Many classic elements — the hourglass, the withered flower, the skull, the burned-out candle — for this rather gothic version of the vanitas.

(Debby: Facebook, blog)

If you want to split hair, that plainly pasted logo in Giulia’s works does not fully comply with the contest rules; but hey, we’re among friends, and her collages entitled Under The Skin are so beautiful that I just couldn’t leave them out.

(Giulia Dah Mer: Facebook, Instagram)

Memento mori, alright, but above all memento cogitare: remember to think.

(Diego Bono: Facebook, Instagram)

Gaber Ricci sumbitted an anatomical animated GIF, which would be perfect for a T-shirt. All we need now is some tech guy to figure out how to play GIFs on T-shirts, and we’ve got a business that’ll shake the world.

(Gaber shies away from social media, but he runs a highly intelligent blog in Italian: Suprasaturalanx.)

The LondoNerD is another great blogger, and for the occasion he drew a portrait of me as Jeremy Bentham‘s famous auto-icon. Apart from the fact that my head too is often somewhere else, the juxtaposition with the great philosopher is undeserved.

(The LondoNerd: blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Alessandro gifts us with a sacral vision entitled Curiositas, which reminds me of Art deco, Beardsley and some of the graphic work of Alberto Martini.

(Alessandro Amoruso: Facebook, Deviantart)

Greta a.k.a Nevestella celebrates a hypothetical union between two famous freakshow artists: can you guess who they are?

(Nevestella: Facebook, Instagram, Deviantart)

Pamela too submitted a spectacular composition including typical vanitas elements.

(Pamela Annunziata Artworks: Facebook, Instagram)

I doubt this will ever go viral, but the way has been opened: here’s the first meme dedicated to this blog. (Text says: Your expression when a new Bizzarro Bazar post is up.)

(Bruno Boborosso Craighero: Facebook, Instagram)

Elena Nisi went as far as to turn me into a comic book hero. And the detail that made my day was the allusion to my friend and BDSM expert Ayzad, whom I can only picture as the villain here: I’d give anything to read the issue in which I finally confront his deadly whips! FSHH! THUD! KA-BOOM!

This photo perfectly describes what happens when the deadline for submitting a new book to my editor is approaching.

(Sara Crimilde: Facebook)

I’ll leave it to Mala Tempora to explain his submission, created in collaboration with Viktoria Kiss:

We imagined a hypothetical article on Bizzarro Bazar regarding the Icelandic folkloric monster called Tilberi [a little monster witches can summon to steal milk from sheep, cows and occasionally human mothers – Ed.], and we created two objects to illustrate the story. In this case the collaboration with Viktoria was priceless, as these beings could only be summoned by women.

(Mala Tempora Studio: official website, Facebook, Instagram)

Consuelo & Samantha designed and animated a discordant macabre sonata for skeleton band, and a tear.

(Consuelo & Samantha Art: official website, Facebook, Instagram)

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next tattoo, Seltz got you covered with this refined, elegant and romantic sketch.

(Seltz: Facebook, Instagram)

In this provocative self-portrait, Irene poses as an anatomical Venus, perfectly capturing the ambiguous sensuality of female dissected figures.

(Irene Manco: Facebook, Instagram)

Blue Luna blends clear references to the Capuchin Crypt in Rome (see my book Mors Pretiosa), wunderkammer’s naturalia, and a skeleton with an all-too-familiar goatee.

(Blue Luna: Facebook, Instagram)

The amazing Emanuela Cucchiarini a.k.a. Eeriette, who won the second prize last year, created this unbelievable gouache on crayons, inspired by the jewel-covered relics of martyrs and saints.

(Eeriette: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)

This work deserves, I think, a honorable mention.
Meewelyne’s illustration may be deceivingly simple. But carefully look at it, and a sense of uneasiness will start to creep up.
A little girl is walking hand in hand with her mother towards what looks like a circus or a fairground; the strokes are gracious and quite reminiscent of Beatrix Potter‘s illustrations. Yet, in the most calssic Freudian declination of the uncanny, some details seem to be out of place, ambiguous and confusing: the mother wears a fox’s head pinned to her waist, and the child’s backpack is made of a bear cub’s skin and bird wings (look at those robins!). Who are they? Why are they so comfortable with taxidermy? Is it a family business, does the mother teach her daughter how to skin and tan animals? Or should we infer that, in this imaginary universe, it’s OK to dress up like that?
This image — despite its delicate line drawing, straight out of a children’s book — is hiding an unsettling vein which I really loved.

(Meewelyne Rosolovà: Facebook, Deviantart)

WINNERS

After days of indecision, I decided to opt for a joint third place.

3rd Prize

Another astounding nude self-portrait, but this time quite ironic and wild-eyed.
Chiara Toniolo’s work is deliciously loony, and it seduced me for the enthusiastic, smiling and bright way in which it presents elements that, in theory, should be upsetting.
And let’s face it. There’s the artistic nude, the skull, the kitten: that spells boost in page views.

(Chiara Toniolo Art: Facebook, Instagram)

Joint Third

This year’s surprise was the unexpected participation of mentalist Francesco Busani (a couple of years ago I posted a special feature about him). Being a great collection of ouija boards, Francesco created one especially for Bizzarro Bazar. The philologic attention to details is astounding, from vintage artworks to the use of the original materials (namely masonite) that were employed in the Sixties to build these psychic instruments.
Francesco created only two copies of this board: one stays in his collection, and one is already a part of mine. But I must confess I still haven’t tried to consult it, because if there’s one thing I learned from horror movies is that you don’t fiddle with some things.

(Francesco Busani: official website, Facebook)

2nd Prize

The wonderful Gadiro (Gaia Di Roberto) crafts dolls, plush toys, accessories, pendants and necklaces that are both creepy and kawaii. In order for this mixture to be fresh and original, you need a lot of talent but above all a unique sensibility.
A sensibility that also appears from her words:

The existence of Bizzarro Bazar not only inspired me for my work but it urged me to take this strange path of the “sweet little creepy creatures maker”; in times when I almost felt guilty about nurturing certain interests, this blog and all the people who follow it made me feel less alone, I would say in family.

Looking at myself as a puppet among Gadiro’s dolls, I now feel part of a family, too.

(Gadiro: Facebook, Instagram, Etsy shop)

1st Prize

Look, a mysterious box!
Wonder what’s inside.

A decorated skull?
But what about that kind of microscope slide on the side of the door?

Now I get it!
It’s not a skull, it’s a… Bizzarroscope!

Taking inspiration from one of my very first articles, in which I talked about the extraordinary stenoscopic cameras of Wayne Martin Belger, André Santapaola a.k.a. Elragno built this spectacular instrument which has the purpose of injecting wonder into our worldview.
Thanks to a stenopeic hole in the skull’s right eye socket it is possible to fix reality through the artifice of photography (it’s not by chance the relative viewfinder is labeled Artificialia); by inserting the slide on the left side of the skull, one can watch the world throught the filter of a butterfly wing, a dewdrop, or any other natural element — and that’s why this lens is called Naturalia.

The label on the forehead reminds us of the third classic element of any wunderkammer, as well as the inevitable result of these explorations: Mirabilia, “marvels” and “awe”.

Thus Elragno wins the 1st prize with a particurlarly well-crafted object, but above all for its very sophisticated concept: “the Bizzarroscope […], just like Ivan Cenzi’s writings, allowes us to see the world from a different perspective, in which the “observed” becomes a means for observation.”
It’s like saying: the passion for the unusual spurs from the desire to change one’s own way of looking, and Wonder is the key to discover new, unexpected horizons.

(Elragno Creations: Facebook, Instagram)

If you particularly liked some of these works, make sure you show the authors your appreciation in the comments!
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing on social media all the submitted works which do not appear here.
Once again, thanks to all contestants, you cheered me up and moved me — and I hope you had fun.

BB Contest Awards

Sep13

The first Bizzarro Bazar Contest ended on Sunday at midnight.
In the last few weeks I found myself facing a problem I, quite naively, had not forseen: I didn’t expect the entries to be so many and of such high quality.
Nearly fifty works, all so diverse and imaginative — I assure you I’m not exaggerating, in a few lines you’ll see for yourself. Choosing just three among them to be awarded was very tough: I hesitated for days, and kept changing my mind, going through all of them over and over. But again, this is also part of the game.

And to me it was not just a game.
This blog is alive by virtue of passion, and even passions sometimes need to be revived: so I owe all of you, who spent time and energy to participate, way more than a simple thank you. The love and enthusiasm you showed during these days gave me more strength than you can imagine.

But enough talking.
Before unveiling the three awarded works, here’s a selection of the others. I cannot post all the entries, so don’t be offended if you do not see yours: in the next weeks I will publicize on social media all the works that couldn’t be included here, with links to the authors.
Alright, let the weird parade begin!

When you really need some sleep, but your parasitic twin wants to keep on reading Bizzarro Bazar.
(Greta Fantini: Facebook, Instagram)

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up!
This drawing conceals a heap of allusions to old posts, from the vegetal lamb to the Sutherland sisters, from the Rat King to surrealist parties, to the flying tailor.
(Nike: Instagram)

Francesco Barbera contributed with a suggestive short story, entitled The Original Sin, which for its atmosphere reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s narrative style: you can read it here [Italian only].

Breaking news: good old Ed Gein was crazy.
Crazy about Bizzarro Bazar’s merchandise.
(Big Man Illustrator: Instagram)

Giorgia built a real homepage for this blog, complete with HTML code to click through the various categories (the code is not implemented here, this is just the picture). The result is a gorgeous wunderkammer-like collage that would certainly appeal to Terry Gilliam.
(Nutjshell: Instagram)

The blog as a wunderkammer is also the concept behind Eleonora’s personal artistic vision.
(Eleonora Helbones: Instagram, Facebook)

Embarassing moments: you’re about to waltz with your siamese skeleton, but you forget having hidden your collection of flying eyeballs inside the grammophone. I hate it when that happens.
(Domenico Venezia: Instagram)

Sara designed the essential gadget for the stylish, who care about details and who wish to stand out even in the most trivial situations.
Never end up in the morgue again without a customized Bizzarro Bazar toe tag!
(Sara Crimilde: Facebook)

OrcheStrafottente wrote a jingle called Bizzarro Bazar, and performed it on the most unusual and weird instruments: dan moi, practice chanter, hulusi, toy piano, plastic hose, nose whistle, bird call, voices, elephant bell.
(OrcheStrafottente: Facebook)

This is me, in magician mode.
(Entracta: Instagram)

This is me, in memento mori mode.
(Vicky Void: Instagram)

This is me, in Fiji mermaid mode, the most classic of sideshow gaffs. (A mermaid with a goatee, I say, what is this world coming to.)
(Esoterismo Simon Mago: Facebook)

This is me, in anatomical specimen mode, and subjected to a fitting retaliation.
(Gli inetti: Instagram)

This is me, in voodoo doll mode. Death pulls my strings, but I pull the strings of a second puppet with his features. In your face, Mr. Grim Reaper!
Like saying: we’re all puppets in the hands of death, there’s no way around that, but maybe we can learn to control fear by domesticating it and “playing” with it….
(Kiria Eternalove: Instagram, Facebook)

This is me when I’m invited to a birthday party and I didn’t have time to buy a proper present.
(Il Decimo Mese: Instagram, Facebook)

A wunderkammer necklace, to turn yourself into a walking museum of wonders.
(Cher_macabre00: Instagram)

Alice submitted an autobiographical short tale, Story of A. [Italian only], that really moved me: it’s about a moment in her life many of us can relate to — when we discover that our curiosity, often considered too “morbid”, in time can turn out to be our greatest asset.

Cecilia sends her “double” wishes for the blog’s birthday.
(Cecilia Murgia: Instagram)

Guenda, passionate about recycled and found objects craft, remade the Bizzarro Bazar logo by weaving it with human hair, in the fashion of Victorian mourning embroidery.
(Guenda Flower: Facebook, Blog)

This still life by Gianluca Tommasi (a.k.a. TheDancingLeper) might fool you: in reality it’s not a painting, but a photograph.
Don’t believe it? Here’s the bejind-the-scenes:

Another beautiful memento mori photo, with mourning accessories, hourglass (tempus fugit), phrenologic head and palmistry hand.
(Seby Mauro: Facebook)

This “Punished Suicide” is holding in her hands a skull that looks familiar.
(Chiara Noemi Monaco: Instagram)

Long-time reader Pina Fantozzi dedicated a spectacular acrostic to the blog (even if she had some trouble, she says, due to the “abundance of voiced alveolar sibilant affricates“).

The most colorful and psychedelic of the contest entries.
(Elena Macrelli: Instagram)

Lon Chaney, sporting a Bizzarro Bazar top hat, and an authentic little child’s skeleton are featured in this picture taken by one of the greatest human skull collectors and photographers.
(Gnat Tang: Instagram, Facebook)

A chemical-alchemical vanitas drawn by da Marco, who is a wunderkammer antique dealer by trade.
(Marco Genzanella: Instagram, Facebook)

Simona’s surreal wunderkammer.
(Simona Trozzi: Facebook)

A mysterious crate from Papua New Guinea? What’s inside?

Of course, an exclusive Bizzarro Bazar penis gourd (koteka)! Wear it at the next cocktail party to redefine the concept of ethnic style!
(Mala Tempora: Instagram, Facebook)

WINNERS

3rd Prize

Third prize goes to Nicole Beffa who created this skeleton intnto on drawing the Bizzarro Bazar logo.
I was struck by the originality of the technique (pyrography) together with the unusual base material (deer scapula), but most of all by the “meta-narrative” vertigo this work entails: a bone containing a skeleton drawing a skull. Could you ask for more?
(Nicole Beffa: Facebook)

2nd Prize

This gouache by Emanuela Cucchiarini, known professionally as Eeriette, is a feast for the eyes and conquered me for its use of color, for the choice of represented “wonders” (those seashells are just beautiful) and for the strong personality displayed throughout the whole work.
(Emanuela “Eeriette” Cucchiarini: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter)

1st Prize

Paola Cera’s oil painting earned the first prize for its essential elegance: the hydrocephalic skull (which has been this blog’s icon right from the start, and always looked to me like a metaphore for a mind ready to “swell” with curiosity) is placed within the picture in a perfectly contextualized way, between the two other emblems of the strange and the marvellous. Such a refined synthesis of circus references and naturalistic and macabre allusions was no easy task; Paola succeeded in creating a work that, in my opinion, is stylistically excellent.
(Paola Cera: Instagram, Facebook)

I wish to express once again my gratitude to all the entrants, and remind you that in the next few weeks I will be posting on social media the many wonderful works that did not appear here.
If you would like to congratulate some artist that in your opinion was unjustly excluded from my Top 3, feel free to do so in the comment setion below.

In closing, I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Dreams of Stone

Jan8

Stone appears to be still, unchangeable, untouched by the tribulations of living beings.
Being outside of time, it always pointed back to the concept fo Creation.
Nestled, inaccessible, closed inside the natural chest of rock, those anomalies we called treasures lie waiting to be discovered: minerals of the strangest shape, unexpected colors, otherworldly transparency.
Upon breaking a stone, some designs may be uncovered which seem to be a work of intellect. One could recognize panoramas, human figures, cities, plants, cliffs, ocean waves.

Who is the artist that hides these fantasies inside the rock? Are they created by God’s hand? Or were these visions and landscapes dreamed by the stone itself, and engraved in its heart?

If during the Middle Ages these stone motifs were probably seen as an evidence of the anima mundi, at the beginning of the modern period they had already been relegated to the status of simple curiosities.
XVI and XVII Century naturalists, in their wunderkammern and in books devoted to the wonders of the world, classified the pictures discovered in stone as “jokes of Nature” (lusus naturæ). In fact, Roger Caillois writes (La scrittura delle pietre, Marietti, 1986):

The erudite scholars, Aldrovandi and Kircher among others, divided these wonders into genres and species according to the image they saw in them: Moors, bishops, shrimps or water streams, faces, plants, dogs or even fish, tortoises, dragons, skulls, crucifixes, anything a fervid imagination could recognize and identify. In reality there is no being, monster, monument, event or spectacle of nature, of history, of fairy tales or dreams, nothing that an enchanted gaze couldn’t see inside the spots, designs and profiles of these stones.

It is curious to note, incidentally, that these “caprices” were brought up many times during the long debate regarding the mystery of fossils. Leonardo Da Vinci had already guessed that sea creatures found petrified on mountain tops could be remnants of living organisms, but in the following centuries fossils came to be thought of as mere whims of Nature: if stone was able to reproduce a city skyline, it could well create imitations of seashells or living things. Only by the half of XVIII Century fossils were no longer considered lusus naturæ.

Among all kinds of pierre à images (“image stones”), there was one in which the miracle most often recurred. A specific kind of marble, found near Florence, was called pietra paesina (“landscape stone”, or “ruin marble”) because its veinings looked like landscapes and silhouettes of ruined cities. Maybe the fact that quarries of this particular marble were located in Tuscany was the reason why the first school of stone painting was established at the court of Medici Family; other workshops specializing in this minor genre arose in Rome, in France and the Netherlands.

Aside from the pietra paesina, which was perfect for conjuring marine landscapes or rugged desolation, other kinds of stone were used, such as alabaster (for celestial and angelic suggestions) and basanite, used to depict night views or to represent a burning city.

Perhaps it all started with Sebastiano del Piombo‘s experiments with oil on stone, which had the intent of creating paintings that would last as long as sculptures; but actually the colors did not pass the test of time on polished slates, and this technique proved to be far from eternal. Sebastiano del Piombo, who was interested in a refined and formally strict research, abandoned the practice, but the method had an unexpected success within the field of painted oddities — thanks to a “taste for rarities, for bizarre artifices, for the ambiguous, playful interchange of art and nature that was highly appreciated both during XVI Century Mannerism and the baroque period” (A. Pinelli on Repubblica, January 22, 2001).

Therefore many renowned painters (Jacques Stella, Stefano della Bella, Alessandro Turchi also known as l’Orbetto, Cornelis van Poelemburgh), began to use the veinings of the stone to produce painted curios, in tension between naturalia e artificialia.

Following the inspiration offered by the marble scenery, they added human figures, ships, trees and other details to the picture. Sometimes little was needed: it was enough to paint a small balcony, the outline of a door or a window, and the shape of a city immediately gained an outstanding realism.

Johann König, Matieu Dubus, Antonio Carracci and others used in this way the ribbon-like ornaments and profound brightness of the agate, the coils and curves of alabaster. In pious subjects, the painter drew the mystery of a milky supernatural flare from the deep, translucent hues; or, if he wanted to depict a Red Sea scene, he just had to crowd the vortex of waves, already suggested by the veinings of the stone, with frightened victims.

Especially well-versed in this eccentric genre, which between the XVI and XVIII Century was the object of extended trade, was Filippo Napoletano.
In 1619 the painter offered to Cosimo II de’ Medici seven stories of Saints painted on “polished stoned called alberese“, and some of his works still retain a powerful quality, on the account of their innovative composition and a vivid expressive intensity.
His extraordinary depiction of the Temptations of Saint Anthony, for instance, is a “little masterpiece [where] the artist’s intervention is minimal, and the Saint’s entire spiritual drama finds its echo in the melancholy of a landscape of Dantesque tone” (P. Gaglianò on ExibArt, December 11, 2000).

The charm of a stone that “mimicks” reality, giving the illusion of a secret theater, is unaltered still today, as Cailliois elegantly explains:

Such simulacra, hidden on the inside for a long time, appear when the stones are broken and polished. To an eager imagination, they evoke immortal miniature models of beings and things. Surely, chance alone is at the origin of the prodigy. All similarities are after all vague, uncertain, sometimes far from truth, decidedly gratuitous. But as soon as they are perceived, they become tyrannical and they offer more than they promised. Anyone who knows how to observe them, relentlessly discovers new details completing the alleged analogy. These kinds of images can miniaturize for the benefit of the person involved every object in the world, they always provide him with a copy which he can hold in his hand, position as he wishes, or stash inside a cabinet. […] He who possesses such a wonder, produced, extracted and fallen into his hands by an extraordinary series of coincidences, happily imagines that it could not have come to him without a special intervention of Fate.

Still, unchangeable, untouched by the tribulations of living beings: it is perhaps appropriate that when stones dream, they give birth to these abstract, metaphysical landscapes, endowed with a beauty as alien as the beauty of rock itself.

Several artworks from the Medici collections are visible in a wonderful and little-known museum in Florence, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.
The best photographic book on the subject is the catalogue Bizzarrie di pietre dipinte (2000), curate by M. Chiarini and C. Acidini Luchinat.

R.I.P. HR Giger

May13

Si è spento ieri il grande H. R. Giger, in seguito alle ferite riportate durante una caduta nella sua casa di Zurigo. Aveva 74 anni.

Giger aveva cominciato la sua carriera negli anni ’70, e verso la metà del decennio venne reclutato da Alejandro Jodorowsky come designer e scenografo per l’adattamento cinematografico di Dune: il progetto purtroppo non vide mai la luce, ma Giger, ormai fattosi notare ad Hollywood, fu scelto per disegnare i set e il look della creatura di Alien (1979). L’Oscar vinto grazie al film di Ridley Scott gli diede fama internazionale.

Da quel momento, stabilitosi a Zurigo in pianta stabile, Giger continuò a dipingere, scolpire e progettare arredamenti d’interni e oggetti di design; i suoi quadri comparvero sulle copertine di diversi album musicali; nel 1998 aprì i battenti il Museum H. R. Giger, nel castello di St. Germain a Gruyères.

I suoi inconfondibili e surreali dipinti, realizzati all’aerografo, aprono una finestra su un futuro oscuro e distopico: panorami plumbei, in cui l’organico e il meccanico si fondono e si confondono, dando vita ad enormi ed enigmatici amplessi di carne e metallo. Se l’idea dell’ibridazione fisica fra l’uomo e la macchina risulta oggi forse un po’ datata, l’elemento ancora disturbante dei dipinti di Giger è proprio questa sensualità morbosa e perversa, una sorta di sessualità post-umana e post-apocalittica.

La sua opera, al tempo stesso viscerale ed elegante, è capace di mescolare desiderio e orrore, tragicità e mistero. La sfrenata fantasia di H. R. Giger, e le sue visioni infernali e aliene, hanno influenzato l’immaginario di un’intera generazione: dallo sviluppo dell’estetica cyberpunk ai design ultramoderni, dalla musica rock ai film horror e sci-fi, dal mondo dei tattoo all’alta moda.

Ecco il link all’ HR Giger Museum.

Paul Cadden

Nov18

(Articolo a cura della nostra guestblogger Marialuisa)

La meraviglia che si prova di fronte ad alcune opere di Paul Cadden è difficile da spiegare, osservare ogni ruga dei suoi personaggi, le espressioni e gli sguardi, la tensione che sentiamo nell’immagine come se noi stessi ne facessimo parte.

Belle foto? No. Bei quadri in grafite, questo è l’elemento che sicuramente ci stupisce, una realtà perfetta rimasta impressa da una matita, composta da minuscoli tratti impercettibili. Difficile pensare che sono disegni, che non è un attimo impresso su una foto.

Il motivo che ha spinto Paul Cadden a creare quadri iperrealisti piuttosto che di altro genere è il fatto di essere profondamente affascinato dalla continua distorsione della realtà che ci circonda.

La facilità con cui i media, ma anche le stesse persone riescono a manipolare la percezione della realtà di masse intere, la propensione a distorcere un fatto per avere ragione in una semplice discussione, tutto questo lo spinge a creare quadri in cui la realtà sembra un fatto così immobile ma anche vero, tale da essere incontestabile e interpretabile da chiunque a modo suo senza filtri.

L’iperrealismo permette di aggiungere dettagli non reali nella foto iniziale per darci la possibilità di avere la sensazione di poter vedere molti più oggetti, molti più dettagli di quanti non riesca a cogliere il nostro occhio in una foto o nella realtà stessa.

Appiattire i soggetti, eliminando ogni tipo di colore attraverso la grafite, permette al nostro occhio di rilassarsi e guardare tutto senza disturbi: quello che l’artista cerca di fare è proiettarci in una realtà ripulita da oggetti estranei, sensazioni disturbanti – è tutto lì, alla nostra portata, tutto valutabile, tutto immobile eppure in tensione.

Paul Cadden attraverso le sue opere ci porta a osservare i suoi soggetti ma anche lo stesso mondo in cui viviamo, stralci di società, con occhio imperturbabile e finalmente oggettivo.

Dal suo stesso sito vorrei riportare una frase che ben rappresenta il suo pensiero riguardo alla realtà al di fuori delle sue opere.

Noam Chomsky: “In ogni luogo, dalla cultura popolare ai sistemi di propaganda, c’è una costante pressione per far sì che le persone si sentano deboli e confuse, che il loro unico ruolo sia quello di rettificare decisioni e consumare”.

Questo è il link al suo sito.

Sarolta Bàn

Oct24

Sarolta Bàn è un’artista del fotoritocco di 27 anni, di Budapest. Dopo essere stata designer di gioielli, si è dedicata alla fotografia e alla creazione di immagini ritoccate con Photoshop. Per completare uno dei suoi “quadri” le occorrono da poche ore a giorni di lavoro, e oltre 100 livelli diversi per singola immagine.

Le sue opere sono molto surreali, e hanno un’atmosfera magica e sospesa. “Mi piace usare elementi comuni e, combinandoli, regalare loro varie storie, personalità. Spero che il significato delle mie immagini non sia mai troppo limitato, che resti aperto in qualche modo, così che ogni spettatore lo possa far divenire personale. Sono felice se diverse persone trovano diversi significati nelle mie immagini”.

Lasciatevi conquistare dalle strane e misteriose opere di questa giovane artista ungherese.