QUESTIONS OF EQUILIBRIUM by Tiziana Conti

The historicization of truth takes place in the work,
opening up to the marvellous, overturning the ordinary

Martin Heidegger, Off the Beaten Track

This thought by Martin Heidegger leads to profound reflection. The marvellous is knowing how to focus on the play of forces that regulates that which exists. Overturning the ordinary means taking a conscious look at reality, eluding what Peter Halley defines as the “frozen façade” that grips existence in a vice, preventing any attempt at process.

Viviana Rossi-Caffell’s research is framed in light of these considerations. For her, sculpture represents a form of investigation that penetrates the deepest folds of reality, it is the medium capable of involving and modifying provisional balances: the unifying thread lies in identifying a constant adaptation between the self and the world. In her formative experience, various elements converge to create a cohesive experiential fabric: the tension of Calder’s sculpture, played between stability and movement, the emotional control suggested by martial arts, the imagery of surreality, the fascination of music. This multiplicity of elements, always reworked in the light of a profound interiority, ascribes a problematic, dialectical character to the work: relativity takes on a much more fundamental significance than certainty.

Jean Baudrillard states that existence pays a very high price for the domination of rituals, it takes place in a tumult without any apparent cohesion. Eluding object reification means understanding the mutability of existence, its precariousness, developing dynamics capable of revealing continuous adaptation to provisional states of being. Emphasizing the importance of doubt.

The unitary thread of Rossi-Caffell’s research is determined precisely by the desire to escape from a closed universe, to enrich the language through tensions aimed at recovering harmony: Stabiles and Mobiles are complementary ideas, in the symbiosis of measurement and movement, which establish a dynamic relationship with space by placing itself in the full and current temporal dimension of Walter Benjamin’s now-time (Jetztzeit). Sculpture assimilates the contradictions and metamorphoses of existence so as to allude to something other than itself. The comparison between object and space enhances perceptive tensions, in an attempt to inhabit reality.

It seems essential to me to emphasize that music gives sculpture its internal rhythm and becomes its inescapable background. It enhances perception, it is the purest epiphany of the movement of the universe, according to Friedrich Schelling. Sound is also a rebound, a recall. Rossi-Caffell’s sculptures are vibrant, they have the capacity to pick up echoes, imperceptible correspondences.

In this play the material used in the work takes on a fundamental role: the artist uses multiple materials, never separately, always in constant dialogue, sometimes apparently impossible combinations: copper, brass, aluminium, lead, zinc, enamel, clay, sea pebbles, limestone are not inert matter, they interact with the idea, indeed they make it exemplary.

The exhibition in which Rossi-Caffell presents her recent works is entitled Daybreak. The title is highly allusive, describing as it does the coming of light, thus putting an end to the night, highlighting an eternal creation in which nocturnal visions, dreams and fancies seem to materialize, opening up new horizons. The two groups of sculptures proposed share a common element in their ability to suggest a microcosm that incorporates fragments of reality, reveals and renews traces of experience, distances itself from rhetoric, opening up to a new flow of relationships.

The group of works entitled The Way In proposes a complex dialogue between two hard materials, metal and stone, which seek interpenetration without harshness, without vulnus: the stone is not scored, the metal is neither marked nor scratched. There is therefore the possibility to establish a profound relationship that, deriving from intuition, can also be transferred metaphorically to life: “the way in”, as Rossi-Caffell states, marks “an initiatory path and opens a discussion around inclusion/exclusion”.

The other group of sculptures, the “little theatres”, as the artist defines them, recall “settings” where the most heterogeneous situations, always evocative, suggest narratives, memories, even autobiographical ones, fragments of life. Some examples: in Little theatre for Edward James the well-known British collector and poet evokes surrealist suggestions emphasized by the presence in the foreground of Salvador Dalì’s famous “lips”. Fine, soft brass threads create a loose, yet inescapable bond between the figures of The pace of the giants. Transitoriness and, therefore, the continuous transformation of the existent are the fulcrum of Metamorphosis: three zinc walls, two patinated by rainwater, one gleaming, reveal inexhaustible transitions of state. Post Nubila Phoebus, an autobiographical work, is made up of three suspended silhouettes that suggest the family triad: two are full, the third is a light “profile” that ideally connects them, highlighting the contrast between empty and full.

The consistency of the works on display is not episodic, but rather paradigmatic. The “questions of equilibrium” alluded to in the title of my reflections therefore concern the need to move, to encourage creativity, going beyond what “happened a little while ago”. To question that which exists.

© Tiziana Conti, 2023

VIVIANA, THE WAY IN…. by Paul Harper

Let us therefore pay no further heed to the abstract objections of philosophers and go instead with poets and dreamers to the interior of a few objects.

Gaston Bachelard, Earth and Reveries of Repose: an essay on images of interiority

Viviana Rossi-Caffell’s sculptures are characterised by a distinctive material sensibility. They play with formal sculptural properties as well as with movement and spatial relation between the parts. Sometimes they take the form of delicate mobiles, elegant, poised, often with a streak of surrealist humour. At other times they can resemble stage sets, tableau in which objects stand in dynamic relation to each other.

Flat planes of sheet metal intersect or slot together to form simple freestanding arrangements, interlaid so that they partially reveal and partially obscure each other. Like theatrical backdrops, they create an illusion of depth. The stage is delineated, but these sculptures resonate beyond themselves – they are all potential. If these are theatrical devices then we, the audience, are not being invited to passively watch the action unfold, but to make an imaginative leap, to bring our selves to the stage, to animate these scenes ourselves.

The theatricality of these works is a less explicit but persistent reference in the most recent pieces. They still demonstrate certain elements of performance: the framing and relational placing of objects; a sense of suspended action; the play of indefinite scale; the balance and grace of the dance – but these pieces are less like assemblages, they have a more assertive sculptural quality, which is to do with orientation and articulation, and a profound attention to materiality.

They have an exact but asymmetrical geometry – structures that, for all their clean formality, contain an imminent potential for disorder. In one collection of pieces the precision of the metal plate sits alongside, and in contrast to, large stone pebbles, rendered to a different kind of smooth perfection by the action of the sea. The stones have another type of imminence: their roundness suggests fecundity, a dynamic state of heavy ripeness that stirs our material imagination to picture a rupture in the surface, to consider the inside. What lies beneath the skin? What does the surface reveal about the intimate interior? The desire to open up and see into these solid objects is further provoked by the way that the brass plate, cut to follow the contours of the stone, gives an illusion of having made a surgical incision. A sense of division and structure is further enhanced by the way that the polished metal mirrors the stone. The blade slices through it whilst remaking it as a whole object. As well as this ‘image of interiority’ the reflections remind the viewer of the three dimensionality of the sculpture.

Where the work most clearly evokes theatrical space, as in Metamorphosis and Post Nubila Phoebus, the framing seems allusive, vestigial. Content, drama and narrative are not absent, but more purely visual values such as form and material, colour and spatial arrangement are especially striking. In Metamorphosis, for instance, corroded metal suggests a proscenium arch and a backdrop of waves. A mis-en-scene is clearly established, but what draws the eye is the synergy between the upswept serif at the end of the partly defined proscenium and the crests of the waves, and the extraordinary resonance between the colour and texture of the zinc and a flawlessly rounded stone in the middle-ground.

All of these pieces invite the viewer to imagine looking from all angles – and this brings into play mobile and unstable relationships between different aspects of the work, between the inside and outside, front and back, the foreground, middle and background, and between one part and another. Instead of being a selection of isolated elements, the sculpture becomes a coherent, but volatile, whole – a collage in which every part interacts with everything else.

© Paul Harper, 2023

Reference:
Gaston Bachelard (2011) Earth and Reveries of Repose: an essay on images of interiority. Trans. Mary McAllester Jones. Dallas, Dallas Institute Publications

QUESTIONI DI EQUILIBRIO di Tiziana Conti

Nell’opera si attua lo storicizzarsi della verità,
aprendo al prodigioso, rovesciando l’ordinario

Martin Heidegger, Sentieri interrotti

Questo pensiero di Martin Heidegger induce a una riflessione profonda. Il prodigioso è il sapersi focalizzare sul gioco di forze che regola l’esistente. Rovesciare l’ordinario significa gettare uno sguardo consapevole sulla realtà sottraendosi a quella che Peter Halley definisce la “facciata congelata” che serra l’esistenza in una morsa impedendo qualsiasi tentativo processuale.

La ricerca di Viviana Rossi-Caffell si inquadra alla luce di queste considerazioni. La scultura rappresenta per lei una forma di investigazione che si insinua tra le pieghe più profonde della realtà, è il mezzo atto a coinvolgere e a modificare equilibri provvisori: il filo unitario sta nell’individuare un costante adattamento tra l’io e il mondo. Nella sua esperienza formativa confluiscono diversi elementi a creare un tessuto esperienziale coeso: la tensione della scultura di Calder, giocata tra stabilità e movimento, il controllo emozionale suggerito dalle arti marziali, l’immaginario della surrealtà, la fascinazione della musica. Questa molteplicità di elementi, sempre rielaborati alla luce di una interiorità profonda, ascrive al lavoro un carattere problematico, dialettico: la relatività assume un significato ben più fondante della certezza.

Jean Baudrillard afferma che l’esistenza paga un prezzo molto alto al dominio dei rituali, si svolge in un tumulto senza coesione apparente. Sottrarsi alla reificazione oggettuale significa comprendere la mutevolezza dell’esistenza, la sua precarietà, elaborando dinamiche capaci di palesare l’adattamento continuo agli stati provvisori dell’essere. Sottolineando l’importanza del dubbio.

Il filo unitario della ricerca di Rossi-Caffell è determinato proprio dalla volontà di uscire da un universo chiuso, di arricchire il linguaggio attraverso tensioni volte a recuperare armonia: Stabiles e Mobiles sono ideazioni complementari, nella simbiosi di misura e movimento, che instaurano con lo spazio un rapporto dinamico collocandosi nella dimensione temporale piena e attuale del tempo-ora (Jetztzeit) di benjaminiana memoria. La scultura assimila le contraddizioni e le metamorfosi dell’esistente così da alludere ad altro da sé. Il confronto tra oggetto e spazio esalta le tensioni percettive, nel tentativo di abitare la realtà.

Mi sembra essenziale porre in evidenza che la musica conferisce alla scultura il ritmo interiore e ne diventa il sottofondo ineludibile. Essa esalta la percezione, è la più pura epifania del movimento dell’universo, secondo l’affermazione di Friedrich Schelling. Il suono è altresì rimbalzo, richiamo. Le sculture di Rossi-Caffell sono vibranti, dispongono alla capacità di captare echi, corrispondenze impercettibili.

In questo gioco delle parti il materiale di lavoro assume un ruolo fondamentale: l’artista utilizza molteplici materiali, mai separatamente, sempre in dialogo costante, talora all’apparenza impossibile, tra loro: rame, ottone, alluminio, piombo, zinco, smalto, argilla, pietra marina, pietra calcarea, non sono materia inerte, interagiscono con l’idea, anzi la rendono esemplare.

Si intitola Daybreak la mostra nella quale Rossi-Caffell presenta i lavori recenti. Il titolo è fortemente allusivo. La parola indica l’irrompere del giorno, dunque l’avvento della luce a chiudere la notturnità, ponendo in primo piano una eterna creazione nella quale le visioni notturne, i sogni, le immaginazioni sembrano concretizzarsi schiudendo nuovi orizzonti. I due gruppi di sculture proposti trovano un elemento comune nella capacità di suggerire un microcosmo che ingloba frammenti di realtà, palesa e rinnova tracce di vissuto, prende le distanze dalla retorica aprendo a un nuovo flusso di relazioni.

Il gruppo di lavori intitolato The way in propone un dialogo complesso tra due materiali duri, il metallo e la pietra, che cercano una compenetrazione senza asprezze, senza vulnus: la pietra non è scalfita, il metallo non è segnato né graffiato. Esiste dunque la possibilità di instaurare una relazione profonda che derivando dall’intuizione si possa trasferire anche metaforicamente alla vita: “the way in” come afferma Rossi-Caffell segna “un percorso iniziatico e apre un discorso intorno all’inclusione/esclusione”.

L’altro gruppo di sculture, i “teatrini”, come li definisce l’artista, richiama “scenari” dove agiscono le situazioni più eterogenee, sempre evocative, a suggerire narrazioni, memorie, anche autobiografiche, frammenti di vita. Alcuni esempi: in Little theatre for Edward James il noto collezionista e poeta britannico richiama suggestioni surrealiste enfatizzate dalla presenza in primo piano delle celebri “labbra” ideate da Salvador Dalì. Fili sottili e morbidi di ottone creano un legame libero, eppure ineludibile, tra le figure di The pace of the giants. La provvisorietà e, dunque, la continua trasformazione dell’esistente sono il fulcro di Metamorphosis: tre pareti di zinco, due dilavate dall’acqua, una risplendente, palesano inesauribili passaggi di stato. Post Nubila Phoebus, lavoro autobiografico, è costituito da tre sagome sospese che suggeriscono la triade familiare: due sono piene, la terza è un “profilo” leggero che le collega  idealmente evidenziando il contrasto tra vuoto e pieno.

La consistenza dei lavori in mostra non è episodica, quanto piuttosto paradigmatica. Le “questioni di equilibrio” cui allude il titolo delle mie riflessioni riguardano dunque la necessità di muoversi, di sollecitare la creatività, andando oltre quello “che è successo poco fa”. Per interrogare l’esistente.

© Tiziana Conti, 2023

The pace of the giants, 2023