4 questions for Stefano Abbiati
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Qu. Looking at your pictures, spontaneously I felt like asking you to shed some light on the relationship between your titles and the subjects. Do the words come first, perhaps to ex-plore a linguistic suggestion, or does the painting come first? A. Generally, the title comes last on the basis of the suggestion the work itself offers. The title serves to create a sense of alienation, a disorientation in order to form an “electric” field before the painting, in which the mind loses some points of reference. If I paint a child against a yellow background, I won’t call the picture “child before a yellow background” but, perhaps, for example, “a bank clerk remembers how he used to be”. I have a great need to play with words because they have a specific weight and an exceptional power” Qu. Does ambiguity come naturally to you or does it require an effort? A. If by ambiguity you mean the fact that the figures I show have no recognizable identity, with sexually ambiguous or even animal-like features, I have to say that it comes naturally to me. But I need the effort of following nature, a photograph, a subject that already exists in order to unleash the "imagination". A. I would say that they are totally spontaneous and ingenuous, generated during the “creative trance”.
Qu. I have the impression that some of your works feel the influence of cinema and perhaps even of a horror aesthetic. Is this so? 13 February 2008 |
Stefano Abbiati
Abbiati's retreat
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