Goldwatch
2020
Goldwatch started as a project on the 20th March 2020. Due to the quarantine my family was split between two households: on one side, my wife Cristina and I, on the other our sons Oliviero and Rocco.
It is a narration of a particular period of physical isolation that unfolded in a series of images depicted within the walls of a garden adjacent to the studio. The walls form a shape of a square, which reminded me of a clock dial; hence I decided to divide the space in 24 fractions. I portrayed them daily en plain air, whilst nature recklessly bloomed into spring, ignoring the world that came to a standstill.
The process is a metaphor for a moment in which the hours were all the same and, like the space, they have acquired new dimension. Complied to the new intimacy both time and space had to be measured in somehow different units.
The works are of the same dimensions. On the 24 larger works the landscape is painted on a golden background, as a reference to a spiritual and limitless dimension of space from Medieval gold ground art. It’s my way of reflecting on the imposed necessity to make a new beginning.
The name of the project – Goldwatch – has been taken from a memorable scene of Quentin Tarantino’s movie Pulp Fiction.
It sums up the building elements of the narration of the project: the square dial of the garden, the relentless passing of hours, the changing of the seasons, gold’s abstract separation of background and a symbolic value of inheritance, received only to be passed on.
The result of the process is divided in three sections, each composed by 24 works.
Dialoghi : 24 oil o canvas 50x40cm painted during the Instagram live streaming,
Silenzi : 24 drawings on paper 31x32 cm, made ‘en plain air’ while going back to the same spots in the
garden
Meditazioni : 24 oil on canvas, 200x150 cm, painted in my studio with reference to the paintings and drawings
painted on site
It is a narration of a particular period of physical isolation that unfolded in a series of images depicted within the walls of a garden adjacent to the studio. The walls form a shape of a square, which reminded me of a clock dial; hence I decided to divide the space in 24 fractions. I portrayed them daily en plain air, whilst nature recklessly bloomed into spring, ignoring the world that came to a standstill.
The process is a metaphor for a moment in which the hours were all the same and, like the space, they have acquired new dimension. Complied to the new intimacy both time and space had to be measured in somehow different units.
The works are of the same dimensions. On the 24 larger works the landscape is painted on a golden background, as a reference to a spiritual and limitless dimension of space from Medieval gold ground art. It’s my way of reflecting on the imposed necessity to make a new beginning.
The name of the project – Goldwatch – has been taken from a memorable scene of Quentin Tarantino’s movie Pulp Fiction.
It sums up the building elements of the narration of the project: the square dial of the garden, the relentless passing of hours, the changing of the seasons, gold’s abstract separation of background and a symbolic value of inheritance, received only to be passed on.
The result of the process is divided in three sections, each composed by 24 works.
Dialoghi : 24 oil o canvas 50x40cm painted during the Instagram live streaming,
Silenzi : 24 drawings on paper 31x32 cm, made ‘en plain air’ while going back to the same spots in the
garden
Meditazioni : 24 oil on canvas, 200x150 cm, painted in my studio with reference to the paintings and drawings
painted on site