Gauzy Green | Silvia Mariotti

Gauzy Green was presented during the Not at First Glance exhibition held in 2020 at the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana. Coherently part of Silvia Mariotti’s ongoing research, the work differs from her previous photographic experiences in the inclusion of luminous neon, not an overall element – as in the case of previous sculptural or installation works – but an extremely prominent one. 

An exploratory approach leads the artist to constantly confront the natural environment, experienced up close, in the first person, just as in the case of Gauzy Green: this entails a greater concentration on certain details, the circumscription of the vision in a specific portion of what is observed. Thus, Mariotti captures the chiaroscuro effects of the place he encounters, with particular attention paid to the time factor, which includes not only the present of the exploration but also the past of the portion of the territory she decides to investigate.

In Gauzy Green, a hypothetical natural environment is nourished by the luminous effects of neon, referring to situations in which “reverberations and transparencies” – as the artist herself defines them – are impressed on the retina, conditioning our sight: a subjective, personal phenomenon produces signs that blend with the surrounding environment, becoming an active and vital part of it. As happens during the artist’s explorations, man and nature thus merge into a single whole, represented here by the traces of a common optical effect and by the relationship that, through light, the latter has with the natural datum.

Silvia Mariotti, Gauzy Green, 2020
Print on Plexiglass, Neon
150×200 cm
Courtesy the artist

18/08/2021