Absences
Posted on May 13 2018
We often see absence as a negative condition, as the opposite of something more than a ‘status’, an idea itself. In doing so, we usually highlight the denial, we point out the void, not considering that absence should have also a reason to exist, to be. Even if something is not in place or someone is missing – in other words something or someone who used to be there suddenly disappeared –, one can perceive what remains, what is still there, waiting for us. This ‘intangible negotiation’ between positive and negative, this trade we make between visible and invisible is the common theme guiding the visitors through the temporary exhibition Absence, set at the roman space Millepiani from the 3rd to the 31st May 2018.
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Overall, the photographic and digital works exhibited within the gallery tend to underline situations, lives and places where the conditions have changed through time, and they do that in many different ways. Some of the artists wanted to show objectively the material remains, documenting and sometimes denouncing certain conditions, while some others preferred to ‘talk emotionally’, exploring themselves and their beloved ones’ existences.
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Overall, the photographic and digital works exhibited within the gallery tend to underline situations, lives and places where the conditions have changed through time, and they do that in many different ways. Some of the artists wanted to show objectively the material remains, documenting and sometimes denouncing certain conditions, while some others preferred to ‘talk emotionally’, exploring themselves and their beloved ones’ existences.
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On one hand we assist to an overview of abandoned or unfinished places, where a series of ‘architectural skeletons’ re-live a second life, being what they could have been or used to be and, at the same time, what they are and represent right now. Within this scenario, nature has a significant role too, showing us its wounds caused by an exaggerated human exploitation, giving us an inspirational motivation or, again, revealing its most authentic and uncontrollable essence. In both cases, they are fascinating or horrific leftovers, consequences of decisions made in the past that inevitably reshaped the history of a space.
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On the other hand, more images try to deal with the emotional emptiness generated by death, disappearance and absence. Since the path one must face is populated by grief, rage, melancholy, nostalgia… the pictures represent a healing process, something finished but still ongoing, complete but yet uncompleted.
That is why we need to be prepared and ready to accept absurd, paradoxical and surreal situations as well as emotional processes and discoveries about loss, memories and sadness. Silence is the key to read them, because it can express perfectly our respect and admiration.
On the other hand, more images try to deal with the emotional emptiness generated by death, disappearance and absence. Since the path one must face is populated by grief, rage, melancholy, nostalgia… the pictures represent a healing process, something finished but still ongoing, complete but yet uncompleted.
That is why we need to be prepared and ready to accept absurd, paradoxical and surreal situations as well as emotional processes and discoveries about loss, memories and sadness. Silence is the key to read them, because it can express perfectly our respect and admiration.
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Joe Strickland, S & D Hosiery, 2012
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Karoliina Kase, Empty Pool, 2016
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Borna Bursac, The Space Man, 2017
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Sara Fields, Home, 2017
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Kasey Wallace, Letterless, 2017
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Robert Jay Matejcek, Tableaux Automatique: Walkout, 2016
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Doro Zinn. Buckow, 2017
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Tara Wray, Bethel, VT, 2016
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