Richard Sympson. C o s i m o P i c h i e r r i M a r c o Tr i n c a C o l o n e l

Transcription

1 Richard Sympson C o s i m o P i c h i e r r i M a r c o Tr i n c a C o l o n e l

2 Statement The project Richard Sympson was created in 2006 by the collaboration of Cosimo Pichierri and Marco Trinca Colonel. Through the use of different languages, the research focuses on attempt to find objective registers of representation. We started working with photography with the aim to report reality as it is, not as the instrument sees it. We investigate the common place, topos, treating its physical and its linguistic aspects: our subjects are places /objects, respected as such, but also treated as signs. We investigate the sign and the ordinary language, hypothezising the existence of superstructures which can respectfully report the different peculiarities, in a single register.

3 The Inch by Inch process It uses photography as an objective report of common places. It uses the medium of photography as sampling, a pure sensor, a pure agent of information to support the purpose of not representing a place, but of making a survey of it. Each image is the collage of a series of frontal shots taken inch by inch, to obtain a single image made up of infinite points of view. With this process we reject a single point of view, rejecting perspective as a system of representation of the reality. The result of this process is presented on the exact scale, the 1:1. This tension in the linguistic structures of photography attempts to produce an exact image. The effort is crystallized in an image, that is obsessively two-dimensional, in which the documentary urge of photography is trapped in a hyper-documentarism that ends up by documenting nothing but its making. Installation of Inch by Inch #3 at SMAK, Gent Inch by Inch process, 2009, slide show

4 Inch by Inch series We began our research working on a series of photographic images, Inch by Inch series, from the name of the process that makes them realizable. This title ( Palmo a Palmo, in Italian) comes directly from an Italian idiomatic expression, a common place, used by mass media to indicate the minute modality of examination adopted by forensics during an enquire. The subject of the Inch by Inch series are places which have left a sign on the most recent Italian emotional history. In these places dramatic events took place and, by media amplification, they became common places for the Italian emotional community. Our utopistic attempt is to crystallize what the places really are, in an iper-descriptive image, independently from the media representations-interpretations. Inch by Inch #2, 2006, 180cm x 245cm

5 Inch by Inch #3, 2007, 281cm x 375cm Detail of Inch by Inch #3

6 Inch by Inch #5, 2009, 246cm x 534cm Detail of Inch by Inch #5

7 The void at the center Trough the objectivity of the Inch by Inch process we directed the research towards one of the meanings of the expression common places. We focused our attention on the real of the images. We worked on the topos of floral garland for its elapsed iconological value. The topos of floral garland is used as a pure sign which is able to convey different rhetorical figures, especially allegorical ones, objectified by the florist Luca Lopopolo. The project is made by seven images\; seven variations, seven accesses to the sign-garland. The seven images are Garland of laurel, Garland of flowers, Garland of tropical flowers, and Allegory of Four Seasons according to Luca Lopopolo (Garland of flowers-autumn, Garland of flowers-winter, Garland of flowers-spring, Garland of flowers-summer). Garland of laurel, 2008, 180cm x 180cm, diasec

8 Garland of flowers, 2008, 180cm x 180cm, diasec Garland of tropical flowers, 2010, 180cm x 180cm, diasec

9 Garland of flowers-autumn, 2008, 180cm x 180cm, diasec Garland of flowers-winter 2009, 180cm x 180cm, diasec

10 Garland of flowers-spring 2009, 180cm x 180cm, diasec Garland of flowers-summer 2009, 180cm x 180cm, diasec

11 Curtain Curtain is the scan made with the Inch by Inch process, of the two sides of a modular curtain from 60 s. Each side is an image. Working on the theme of representation, we have chosen this subject for its iconographic and iconological value. We isolated the object using two different ways of representation, superimposed on the same layer: a classical central perspective for the room behind the curtain, and the Inch by Inch scan for the curtain itself. The two representations are related through the transparent tiles which allow a continuous movement between the two registers. The choice of a modular-grid curtain allows us to emphasise a link between the process by which the image is made, and the possibility of creating an image that is halfway between reality and abstraction. Curtain, 2008, 2 elements 91cm x 210cm each, diasec

12 Blood oozing Using the Inch by Inch process, in this case too, we made a scan of a place common to the Italian emotional community, which is surely an emotional precedent. In Blood oozing we scanned a place, near Rome, where in 1997 a miracle happened. At that time, in several part of Italy some Madonna statues started crying blood. Only this one was recognised as «true» by the Catholic Church. The religious community still frequents the place, leaving objects-fetishes. Blood oozing, 2007, 140cm x 330cm Detail of Blood oozing

13 Room unfit for human habitation Room unfit for human habitation, 2009, 157cm x 458cm Using the Inch by Inch process, in this case too, we made a scan of a place common to the Italian emotional community, which is surely an emotional precedent. We went to L Aquila, some weeks after the earthquake. The image is the scan of a room declared unfit for human habitation and which was ready to be pulled down. Detail of Room unfit for human habitation

14 Variations on a sign In this project, which will be shown at the exhibition Beyond the Dust - Artists Documents Today, our attention refers pedantically to the sign. The subject is one of the most common signs, the cross. We analyze the sign of the chemist s signboard, following the three sign registers: icon, symbol, index. The title Variations on a sign is meant to inform on what is taking place. The optical games of a chemist s signboard constitute variations on the theme of the cross sign. Each effect refers back to a number of signifiers that belong to our culture; from there they acquire meanings that are continuously borne in the shape of optical games on the luminous sign. The project is made of three different formalizations in which it is the chosen media that stresses each of the three semiotic registers. Variations on a sign I is a video, hence it refers to the iconic aspect. In this work we documented the flowing of various luminous games of twenty-six chemist s signboards in Paris. For Variations on a sign II deals with the symbolic aspect of the sign, we realized a rotating machine carrying six flags obtained from six frames of the video. In these flags it is possible to track down some symbolic-cultural sings that are commonly known. Variations on a sign III deals the indicial aspect, hence a luminous chemist s signboard is hung in the exhibition space. Variations on a sign I, 2009, 25min, video loop, audio. Video installation at Fabbrica del vapore, Milano

15 Variations on a sign II, 2010, 310cm x 180cm x 180cm. Installation at SBKM De Vleeshal, Middelburg

16 Variations on a sign III, 2010, 90cm x 90cm x 25cm

17 Archive Commande publique du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) Artist Book for the exhibition Beyond the Dust - Artists Documents Today Archive, 2010, inside view (photo Alberto Dedè) Archive, 2010 (photo Alberto Dedè) Archive, 2010, detail (photo Alberto Dedè)

18 Richard Sympson Richard Sympson, 2010, 40cm x 50cm, cardboard, gold, silver

19 Stencil In the 2010 we adopted the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as writing register. The choice comes from the possibilities phonetics offers to isolate and write signifier human sounds, independently from any national-cultural writing code. In this case too, this register of representation concretely allows the attempt to approach the pure signifier. The first work is Stencil, the tool-sculpture of the IPA table (reported below). This work consists in the formalization of the IPA table, the classifying table of all the signifier human sounds, in a stencil, the indicial tool by definition. The result is to give physical shape, although by negation-absence, to the signifying sounds and to generate a short circuit among the different representative registers; this indicates how the concrete, the real, the physical is language, and at the same time, how the language is indeed concrete, real, physical. Stencil, 2010, variable dimensions

20 Map A geographical-political image/map of the world. The countries and relative capitals will be written using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) according to the pronunciation of their own national language(s). The subject of the work is, in this case too, one of the most classical and well-known representation, i.e. the map of the planet. Here, the attempt is to update this representation, making it universal, by the use of a sign register able to represent and respect the multiple national identities. This way, we try to avoid any translation effort that, by definition, needs to refer to the signified. Map, 2010 (Europe preview)

21 Richard Sympson (2006) is Cosimo Pichierri (1976) and Marco Trinca Colonel (1980). In 2004 Cosimo Pichierri graduated in painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Brera-Milano. in 2005 Marco Trinca Colonel graduated in Theoretical Physics in Università Statale di Milano-Bicocca. In 2006 they graduated in Photography from Centro Riccardo Bauer-Milano and began their collaboration. Exhibitions 2011 Richard Sympson, Metronom, Modena (I) (solo exhibition); *Beyond the dust, Fondation d entreprise Ricard, curated by Francesca di Nardo and Lorenzo Benedetti, Paris (F) 2010 Beyond the dust, Fabbrica del Vapore, curated by Francesca di Nardo and Lorenzo Benedetti, Milano (I); Beyond the dust, SBKM De Vleeshal, curated by Francesca di Nardo and Lorenzo Benedetti, Middelburg (NL) 12th Architecture Biennale 2010, People meet in Architecture, Venezia (I); 2009 *Pittoresk, MARTa, curatated by Thomas Niemeyer, Frank Maes, Steven Jacobs, Herford (D); *Kaléidoscope d Italie, Centre National de l Audiovisuel, curated by Angela Madesani, Dudelange (L); *Il cielo in una stanza, Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Monfalcone-GO (I) *Beyond the Picturesque, SMAK(Stedelijk Museum of Contemporary Art) curated by Steven Jacobs and Frank Maes, Gent (B); *Terzo Paesaggio, MAGA (Art Museum of Gallarate), Gallarate-VA (I); 2008 Biennial of Image of Chiasso, Spazio Officina, Chiasso (CH); Same democracy, Galleria Neon/campobase, Bologna (I); *Erediatare il paesaggio, Museum of Territorio, Biella (I); 2007 *International Festival of Photography of Rome, Museum of Ara Pacis, Rome (I); Racconto di un luogo, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano (I); *with catalogue Publications Exibart Magazine, n68, 2010, interview by Daniele Perra; KLAT Magazine, n03, 2010, interview by Francesca di Nardo; Laboratorio Italia, Johan&Levi, 2009, curated by Marinella Paderni; Future Images, Motta Editore, 2009, curated by Mario Cresci; Flash Art, n270 Anno XLI. Viaggio in Italia curated by Elena Bordignon; Punti di Fuga, Bulzoni Editore, 2008, curated by Daniele Fragapane and Sergio Giusti; Cronache dell Abitare, Bruno Mondadori, 2007, curated by Stefano Boeri; Awards Commande publique du CNAP Centre National des Arts Plastiques, for the realizazion of an artist book; Residence of Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art at the Centre International d Accueil et d Echanges des Récollets of Parigi, with the support of Comune di Milano, 2009; Winner of National Award of Visual Art of Gallarate, 2009; Winner of National Award Riccardo Pezza, 2007; Public Collections Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris (F); UBI Banca, Bergamo (I); MAGA, Gallarate (I);