ICONE SACRE OSSIDATE
OXIDISED SACRED ICONS
ITA
Al termine di questo processo tutto si stabilizza e diventa ICONA. Quando a quel punto l’icona è compiuta fisso il tutto con un protettivo ed inserisco la tavola nella teca di metacrilato che le dona uno stato metafisico,infatti quest’ultima non è un’aggiunta per arricchire l’icona come se fosse una cornice ma la reputo parte integrante e funzionale dell’opera.
ENG
At the beginning of the third millennium I took the first steps, hundreds of hours devoted to experiments that failed. Brief moments of joy that evaporated and became months and years of disillusion and frustration.
I, my soul, was in there.I knew that was the road I must take, I wanted to be myself and I no longer meant to satisfy others;but the dawn was not coming.
Then came the turning point, a mistake, the divine touch, the invisible hand that overturned the tin of turpentine that ran all over the gold leaf carefully laid. “What a nuisance!I’ll leave everything and close the shop. I’ll see about it tomorrow. ”The following morning there was the revelation: the gold leaf was a blossoming of verdigris, with shades of colour that disclosed a new vision.
That was when all the experiments with every possible type of acid and solvent started. In 2014 the first one that remained stable, K.60-514 (Ghenesis). The first oxidised sacred icon.
I call my icons “sacred” to recall history and art, so giving the viewer a precise starting-point.
They are not on religious subjects for they are to be considered instruments, an object, not a subject.
The Creed defines God as “Creator of all things visible and invisible” –my work does not aimat delineating a model of God by means of an image derived from my personal inspiration. My work, the oxidised sacred icons, dare to be a window on the invisible, a woodless and glassless window, an immaterial window. I want to make the sound of the waves heard, I want to make the scent of iodine breathed in, I offer a window through which each one can see his own sea with the eyes of the soul. There is no longer a thing here but the perception of a beauty that goes beyond the figurative, opening the mind and allowing thought to soar towards the desire to meet the Eternal.
Concentrating beyond the image, beyond the classic archetype, aims at stimulating a reminiscence, a revival of the memory, and hearing beyond that window a voice from the original depths of life, only seemingly forgotten, a memory of the spiritual origin of each one of us.
The fundamental aspects that link my work with that of an ancient painter of icons are two:
First, the basic technique, the materials employed (wooden support, in this case of a contemporary icon re-cycled MEDIUM DENSITY FIREBOARD), stucco, bole (a red clay), an ancient natural adhesive, gold/silver/copper leaf worked as gouache or adhesive, shellac, etc.Second, the personal preparation (concentration through prayerand isolation within a musical atmosphere ranging from Gregorian chant to classical and shamanic music).This is where the road divides:whereas the classic painter of icons placed his hands at God’s disposal to “write” the icon, as the ancient phrase has it, today I leave the icon in God’s hands.
After the basic preparation, as I said, I do not use traditional instruments to paint, I use acids and solvents.From this point on, under their effect the work starts to die and is consumed, while at the same time the acid in contact with the materials sets off cellular respiration, a microscopic manifestation of active life, giving the icon a new form.
My free will ends here.It is no longer I who train and direct its execution or give it the final form, for I become a witness of a spiritual revelation.Day by day I watch the changes as the material becomes corroded, the gold leaf oxidises and I am enchanted by an æsthetic resurrection that I do not consider casual but a real and proper bondage of the will.At the end of this process everything stabilises and becomes ICON.
KUTURI Independent Artist Document drawn up at Bordighera, August 2014.