My show at the the Madison Arts Council opened yesterday, despite the snow. It was a great night. People were warm and receptive. I talked about my art and my background (Italian-atheist-catholic boy fetishing books and punk rock records), and screened some of my animations, which made people look at my art with different eyes. Thanks to everybody who came out and supported me and bought my art. Thanks to Leni for driving me around and helping me in setting up the show (it looks great, thanks to her) and for everything else that she did. Thanks to Erich (in Man or Astro Man and in dozens of other bands) of the Arts Council for organizing the show.
I will have a solo show in Berlin in the Fall. I lived in Berlin in the 90's. It's my favorite city in the world. I am really excited about it. More details to come.
I am making bigger pieces in these days. I use wooden boards. The cut-outs are paper, and always small, often insanely small, but I am composing them in bigger narratives.
I am not interested in art that tells a story, but in art that contains potential stories and never tells them.
I just finished a tryptic. I am happier about it than I've ever been with anything I've made so far I think. It's called Tre Annunciazioni, which means Three Annunciations.
Rockit.it, the most important Italian music website, is broadcasting In Their Graves, the animation I made for Father Murphy. It's an exclusive, so they asked me to take the video off youtube. Until January 25, you can watch it here.
In the Huffington Post, there is a very nice write up of my animation for Dawn Raffel's new collection of short stories, Further Adventures in the Restless Universe, available in March from Dzanc Books. Thanks to the reviewer for saying that my animation is "incredible" and that it "balances creepy and charming perfectly."
I am making a bunch of new pieces for my solo show opening in two weeks in North Carolina. I will also screen a preview of my full length film DIECI TESTE, which will be graced by the words of Leni Zumas and by the music of Father Murphy.
Cover art I made for the new record by Sin Ropas, Holy Broken. It will be released in a couple months by Shrug Records. Sin Ropas are Tim Hurley and Danni Iosello. Tim played in Red Red Meat, and Danni played in Pure, Califone and other bands. Sin Ropas make music that sounds like Sin Ropas. They are great.
The cover for the European edition of the album was made by the great Paolo Moretti, artist, musician, friend.
Here's the animation I made for Dawn Raffel's new collection of short stories, Further Adventures in the Restless Universe. It's an incredible book. Dzanc, March 2010.
This is my latest film. It's a 7 minutes video for the song In Their Graves by Father Murphy, taken from the album ...And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun (Aagoo 2009).
Father Murphy is getting a lot of great reviews lately (on NME, The Wire, Uncut, The Financial Times). They deserve it. ...And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun does to rock 'n roll today what Black Monk Time did to rock n' roll in 1966, taking away every unnecessary note, beat, word.
Even if I do, I don't like to call my films "animations". I prefer "moving images". I am not interested in the fluidity or in the realism of the movement. My figures are made of paper, and I want them to look that way.
My grandfather owned a toy store. When I was ten, I receiving a puppet theatre for Christmas. I was fascinated by it in a different way than by the other toys. There was something strange about it, something archaic that reached for me. My references are marionettes and puppets rather than cartoons. If I have to find a cinematic influence, it's the pre-cinema: magic lanterns, stereoscopes, cinematoscopes etc.
There is no distinction between my art and my animations. The paper-cuts that I use in my film, I use in my art and vice-versa.
Youtube is great, but it's not the way my films are meant to be seen. They are made to be bigger than you. They are meant to be light in a darkened room. On a big screen you can really see the details, the texture, which is what I am interested in. I want people to think that they can touch the film. When I shoot, I am always happy to find imperfections. A stain has the same dignity of a ship. A cut has the same beauty of a horse.
There will be a bunch of occasions to see my "moving images" projected on a screen this year.
My Italian touring show All Around My Hands There Is Darkness is in Udine at the KOBO until the end of January, and will be in Milan at the Younite in February.
On Friday, January 29 I have another show opening at the Madison Arts Council in Marshall, NC, called The Art of Coffins.
