Epiphany is a good word. I started to draw before talking. The idea of the paper and the touching and the tools of the pencils and the colours to help me, to suggest to me the opportunity to think more, not only in the way to use the words but how the words can create imaginary things and images.
I remember that I founded a course at the primary school when I was fifteen years old, and I had this friend who was doing this course for illustrators. It was amazing because I had a test about how to describe that situation and what could be better to explain that mood. I remember that the first was Little Red Riding Hood.
I never published anything about that because Italy is very strict. After that, when I had to decide which kind of course could be best for me and to find a school, the idea of painting, where I’d have to remain in a room with other painters, didn’t feel right. I don’t know if it’s because of ego or a fear.
For the stage design and scenography, it’s very different because I’m still very close to the literature and the words, so I think this is the best place to understand my idea of something. I’m still in my mind. I always find more interesting things in the world that look so far from the things close to me. For this reason, I’ve always tried. I have a sort of talent in some ways, and I don’t want to put it in a box. I remember that I went to Milan when I was still studying in the final school, and my teacher told me that he knew the picture that I took for the Italian Vogue and that we could arrange a meeting. During that initial meeting, they acknowledged my talent but informed me that they didn’t have a position available for me, which left me feeling deeply disappointed upon returning home.
Later, the nephew of Franca Sozzani called me, and he told me that they would like to offer me a job, and they gave me that amazing section on their website for five years. That was my point of view. Again, I found myself not in the most correct place, thinking of the idea of an artist I know.
During the first years, I had to choose a big brand, like Prada or Dolce & Gabbana, and choose something from the runway. I had to do a sort of sketch and write a very short article. But then it was way more interesting because I did the same but with young designers. So it was much more interesting to find a new brand and new people. I’m really provincial, and now I can use this word in the right way. I live in Turin, and it is not a big city, but it is the perfect city where I can find a place where I can put all of my themes for growing up and blossoming because I need to find myself in a comfort zone. This might be cliche, but the idea of a limit gives me a lot of freedom. It’s exactly the same way that I approach the canvas and the idea of being a painter. Every time that I paint on a free canvas, I need the frame.
The painting epiphany came when I moved out and went to Berlin for a year and a half. After I studied stage design, I tried to understand how to manage the dimensions of the canvases and the relation between the space and the relationship between me and the space of the canvas, and if it belongs to me or to the canvas. In this space, I found a lot of fear and doubt, as well as the idea of failing, but I also found it much more interesting. I remember every time I read a book or I saw a film it was much more interesting to me the shadow part of the narrative. In theatre, the most interesting part is not only the representation in front but also in the sides, in this little part where something can happen before or after. It’s another kind of narrative approach. For me, also, Turin is a strange city because it’s many different things; it’s very baroque; there are a lot of shadows inside; and it could be one of the three cities of black magic. Arte Povera was born here, but the metaphysic too. I also remember the first time I started working on drawings, and I really loved the object, like the knife.
These elements, and fire, persist; they serve as a form of purification. It’s very physical, and it could be very violent. But at the same time, I try to settle everything in a very aesthetic way.
To settle everything, I think it is the wrong idea. Also in painting. A good painter is not about finishing the work; it’s about the next one. It’s a relationship between elements. Try to collect the elements. In the shades, I find more options.
I don’t try to represent doubt by giving the viewer more questions. It’s quite pretentious. I try to doubt myself. Again, it’s only about the definitions. I’m a figurative painter, but I arrive at the figurative approach from the abstract. For me, it’s completely unexpected.
It’s a very frustrating approach. I try to understand day by day the balance between the shadows, the lights, the colours, the forms, and the aesthetics. Every day I arrive at the studio in the morning, and I draw all the time.
I never use silence to create something that is talking about chaos. I need touching, moving, opening, and closing again, and this movement is kind of dancing. When I touch things, I find the better element in the representation of the canvas in that moment. It is a continuing movement.
Discipline is very important. I always start with the title, and later it’s like opening with a big knife and moving the elements in this new structure, and later, in the drawings, I make sketches. This is the most private moment. There are a lot of drawings that I’ve never showed. It’s the most erotic and violent moment, and there is a lot of darkness on the white page of the sketchbook. I also change the rooms in my studio because one room is only for drawing and the other is only for painting. The painting moment is the final moment. It’s very interesting for me to have this moment of finalisation about the elements I decided to put inside. At the end, it’s kind of a carnival.
I might change over the years, but for now, I have found the right size for the work. The viewer’s approach changes according to size. For the small sizes, you have to go really close to the work, take your time, and see the detail. When you are moving close to the big size, is totally different.
In a period when everything is very photogenic, I think that we have a duty to do the things that I try to do and have a lot of sense of duty. I really believe in the work of the team, the curator, and the gallerist, otherwise it is a kind of monologue.
In my case, when I find something, my temperature changes, and there is no reason why. I cannot say if it’s right or not, but I feel that I have to take it in this moment. I remember that I found that title really appropriate, and it was very instinctive. I’m really anxious; I’m a really structured person, and I schedule everything. It may be that some of those feathers are not so common for an artist, but at the same time, I need to put some bombs in and see what is going to happen if I change something. I need to set for myself some limits for trying to detonate the creative bombs; otherwise, it is too much freedom for me.
It’s the only way of thinking about the future, because the future is also about people; it’s not about only me and you but the relationship between us and also about the space between us. I tried to ask myself about all that, and it was when the epiphany of the scenography happened. I don’t want to explain too much about my paintings. In this case, Milovan was a really good curator.
There were a lot of questions, but he was very generous with me because he tried to generate another story. So I think it’s a mix of elements. To be very strict, but remain in the position of dancing inside.
I was a very lonely child, so literature helped me a lot. Stories of others can help me think about new landscapes, situations, and relationships between people. They gave me the input to create. Starting from words that can represent something and moving away from the first idea and seeing how to relate it also to my idea of the world and to put the elements I use every time and the falling bodies and this very liquid approach with the bodies. I prefer the Grimm’s fairytales. I never understood the Disney representation; you only postpone real life for children, and I find it very dangerous. It’s much more interesting to look from your comfort zone to a much more warning zone.
My bodies become bodies when I manage the bodies in relation to landscapes in my own presentation. It’s like acting in a play or acting in a theatre. This is the power of occupying space. You can occupy with the body, with the actions, and also with the words.
The light in California is amazing, but everything for everyone looks happy, and everyone is saying “hello” in the morning. I’m coming from Turin, where embracing people for more than three seconds is too much, and you have to take the distance. I prefer the European light. It’s not only about the light; it’s also about the light that reflects and the reflection of the light in terms of the objects on the wall.
Yes, a lot of light was entering through a very bold glass, changing the surface of everything. Again, it’s not only about one element; it’s not only about the light; it’s the light that can dialogue in a space and be reflected on the bodies and on the objects. The object is you and your story. I also remember that in California, the buildings were almost the same.
My studio’s called Sweet Baby Motel, and it’s completely different from my idea of beauty because in the motel there’s something that is happening very fast and in a very dusty way. There is something in the burning light of California and the swimming pools that nobody takes care of.
I’ve had the name in my mind for a lot of years, but I’ve never had a very proper studio for it. Now is the right time for this studio. It’s a statement, a statement of nothing.
I think it’s a good name. You open the door, and you find the chaos inside, but you also recognise something that’s really structured. The division of the two rooms, the colours, the pink velvet sofa. It’s a mix of very different objects.
Yes, I collect many objects. Maybe in something ugly, you can find as much beauty. There are two very old vitrines with objects from my childhood and from the childhood of my mom, as well as objects that really attracted me at a flea market. When I’m attracted by an object, I never explain why to myself. This process creates an archive.
Yes and no. Sometimes when I see the drawings, I can also see the objects in them, but at the same time, it’s quite dangerous because it’s an appropriation of something. Also, the story of the others is that when you are on the train and it goes very fast and you see the light in the houses, it’s not necessary to ask too much about those lights, it’s the same with the objects. The way I put them in the vitrine and close to each other describes much more about the object and me than the object itself. This is similar to how I arrive from a figurative to an abstract approach. The way I put the object and turn it becomes more interesting to me than only the object itself. I know how to create a balance in the image, using the colours and the forms; it’s a mix of taste and experience, for sure.
Yes. When I studied with the priest, I still had the devil’s hand.
Yes. It’s true. When I saw that I had finished those very terrible mixes of turpentine and oil colours, I put more turpentine in to keep a little fire. Consequently, some of the brushes no longer resemble brushes; they’ve undergone a complete transformation. They’re like monsters. At the end, it’s like the memory of the brushes. It’s a way to give back the form and meaning of something.
I’m going to Brazil for the first time in August because I’ll have my first solo show in Sao Paulo in April next year at Mendes Wood Gallery.
This is a very interesting question, and it’s one that I’m also starting to ask myself. Maybe no, because at the end, always people recognise that there’s something wrong in my representation. I hope that, for the viewer, the result could be the same. Falling is falling everywhere.
Yes, absolutely, it is Beckett. It could be a very general approach in our time when you always have to be better than others. It’s a good way to say, I’m okay. I try to do my best with the tools that I have. For me, it’s very important to have my alphabet. It could be very nostalgic and romantic, but it could also be very violent to defend those elements.
