BURNOUT | GIULIANA ROSSO

Giuliana Rosso is a young Italian artist working with drawing and painting, exploring through her art the moods, interiority, and human consciousness as a parallel reality.
Burnout is a painting created in 2020, and the context is particularly indicative; it was a period when people had to stay indoors due to the pandemic. This situation, which extended for several years, led to an increase in mental illnesses and distress due to limited, and in some cases nonexistent, social interactions among individuals.

Burnout narrates a state of mind in a well-rounded way. Everything in this work communicates a sense of exhaustion, starting from the title itself. The colors predominantly feature shades of green, which chromatically can signify discomfort and disgust.
The painting depicts a corner of a bathroom with tiled walls and a bathtub filled with water. Sitting inside the bathtub, with legs dangling over the edge, there is a partially nude person with crossed arms. A stream of water from above, like a waterfall, completely covers the head of this character, and the only distinguishable element of the face is a glassy, expressionless eye, a lifeless gaze…
This person has filled the tub with sea creature shaped toys, even the coat rack on the wall resembles a cute dolphin, and there’s a smiley face drawn on the t-shirt he (or she) wears. Perhaps an attempt not to be completely overwhelmed by events, a way to react to the negative feelings that emerged in that nefarious context – symbolically recalled in the bottom left corner of the painting by a string of lights shaped like a skull.

Lastly, the set up itself appears somewhat ‘exhausted’: despite the nails being driven into the wall, the canvas is not hung but instead rests on the floor, almost mimicking the attitude of the depicted character. Around the painting, toys shaped like tools have been placed, conceptually representing the will to ‘fix’ or ‘repair’ the situation, but the result seems disappointing.

Giuliana Rosso’s artwork is a compelling and effective representation of a nervous breakdown, in which the majority, if not all, of the spectators could identify themself.

Giuliana Rosso
Burnout, 2020
Oil on canvas, 140 x 190 cm
Installation view of the exhibition “Bored Bones”, 2023, The Address, Brescia
Courtesy the artist and The Address, Brescia

Giuliana Rosso, “Burnout”, 2020, detail.
Oil on canvas, 140 x 190 cm. Courtesy the artist and The Address, Brescia ©

03/02/2024