KOBLENZ

cypher number 19 - KOBLENZ

From the series “Code”, oil and graphite pencil on paper, 30 x 30 cm.

www.artfinder.com/product/cypher-number-19-koblenz

boston

cypher number 18 - BOSTON

From the series “Code”, oil and graphite pencil on paper, 30 x 30 cm.

www.artfinder.com/product/cypher-number-18-boston

dallas

cypher number 17 - DALLAS

From the series “Code”, oil and graphite pencil on paper, 30 x 30 cm. ORIGINAL SOLD.

A map is an imprint, a sign of man in the landscape. An alien intelligence, observing our cities from the great distances of the space, could interpret them as the characters of an alphabet, sort of messages, a code of signs, each one different from the other, each with its own meaning and its own syntax. This hypothetical alien presence may not even realize that these cities have a purpose and a function, which are the product of the way we have adapted to live on this planet, but it could engage in an attempt to interpret this unknown language, identifying the alphabet and associating to each character a precise meaning. We will still be able to understand and share this new meanings, or will they have lost any sense for us?

www.saatchiart.com/ico71

jellyfish

JELLYFISH. Oil and graphite on cerycled cardboard, 29 x 19 cm, 2014. ORIGINAL SOLD.

alphabet

sentence n. 1

From the series “Alphabet”, china ink on paper. 20 x 20 cm.

A barcode is the graphical representation of a series of numbers. What does creates the aesthetics of a bar code? It comes from lines, their thickness, the spacing.We can think of it as a language with its compositional rules, its grammar and its syntax.

I imagined to isolate these rules, separating them from the original purpose for which they were created, and I tried to change them gradually to invent a new language and perhaps new meanings.

Original available for sale.

www.saatchiart.com/ico71

sentence n. 2

sentence n. 3 (original sold)

sentence n. 4

sentence n. 5

sentence n. 6

imaginary map of turin

IMAGINARY MAP OF TURIN
From the series “The earth seen from the space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 50 cm. Original sold.

The stars reflected in the eyes

From the series “The stars reflected in the eyes”, cementite, oil, graphite, wooden sticks and cotton thread on paper. 20 x 20 cm.

Anything that can be classified in a homogeneous series exerts an attraction on me and an impulse to draw it. Perhaps what attracts me is the research of the variant, the exploration of the rules that allow the inclusion of that group of objects in a single set but giving to each object its uniqueness.

So I always liked to draw eyes. Individual eyes, wide eyes, groups of eyes, half closed eyes. To change the expression or play with colors and decorations as if it were a make-up, allows endless variations.

Even the constellations in the sky are endless, and I drew these too, as if they were geometric embroidery or imaginary and arbitrary warping created for the sole purpose of interpreting a reality difficult to understand.

Then, when the verse of a mawkish romantic song came into my thoughts ("The starlight is reflected in your eyes ..."), I could not resist to create a new series, based on the union of those two, which although have nothing to do with each other, related by the only fact of being homogeneous sets, ready to be classified to quench the thirst of an artist that is anxious to bring order into its chaotic imaginary world.

https://www.artfinder.com/federicocortese

United States of America

From the series “Flag”; oil and graphite pencil on canvas; 50 x 75 cm.

Every time that I come back home from a journey or a holiday, I always find, among the photographs that I’ve took, some flags. I am particularly fascinated by those flags moved by the wind, where the geometries of the coloured tissues overlaps on the spirals of folds and on the shadows generated by the movement. It’s even better if the flag is old, maybe a bit ripped, marked by the time that they spent to wave, maybe a little faded or dirty from the dusty air they crossed.

https://www.artfinder.com/product/united-states-of-america/

#flag #flags #political #nation #usa #shadows àdust #rips

bugs and beetles

From the series “The measurement of space”, oil and pencil on paper, 54 x 42 cm.

I am a terrible chess player, because every time I play, I get distracted thinking that the chessboard may extend, spread in all directions, to allow to the pawns infinite movements, explorations and  strategies. The black and white squares could be understood as the representation of space, discovered and explored, or conquered. And this representation may vary from person to person because each of us perceives the world in a different way. And so, the chessboard will look distorted and unrecognizable, different each time, because it would be the reflection of that unique and unrepeatable experience of the world that we did.

Original available for sale.

www.saatchiart.com/ico71

#insect #insects #animals #geometry #geometric #metric_scale #chessboard #measurement

imaginary maps

Imaginary map of Abu Dhabi (original sold)

Imaginary map of New York (ORIGINAL SOLD).

From the series “The earth seen from the space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 50 cm.

The first time I used Google Earth was fantastic. I could not believe that someone had photographed the entire planet, and that the exploration of this world was accessible to all. Browsing by chance I discovered amazing sceneries, looking at the city streets from far away I could accomplish wonderful virtual travels. I discover unexpected color blends at the mouths of the rivers or along the coast of the sea, shades that make uncertain the border between land and water. The cultivated fields create a dense mosaic of colors. The view from a great distance reduces the details and makes possible a new form of representation of the landscape. Basically, the only thing that is changed is the point of view.

Imaginary map of Rome (original sold)

withered trees

 from the series "Withered trees", oil and pencil on paper. 48 x 32 cm.

The structure of a tree is simple and curious: some ramifications in the air to catch the light, some branching underground to pick up the food. But branches and roots are similar: both are developed linearly, until at a certain point, following an algorithm written in the genetic code of the plant, they split, bifurcate, or are tripled, growing in space with a progress which will be sensitive to obstacles of soil or climatic conditions of the place.
The drawing of the bare branches and of the roots, flattened by the simplicity of a pattern in pencil, creates an embroidery, an imaginary warping which can be generated countless times, always different.

Butterflies in the head

RECENT WORKS.

From the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins, oil and pencil on paper, different sizes.               

Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not everyone of us can or want become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglass?

To make these drawings, no butterfly was killed.

introduction to myself

I was born in 1971 in Turin, where I live and work as an independent artist and as an architect, collaborating with several design offices.

In my artistic research I am mainly interested in the study of language. Every language is created with the purpose of communicating information. But each language also has formal rules stemming from the purpose for which it is used. Is it possible to isolate from one language only its formal rules, as if they were a decoration? And what happens if I apply that structure to another language? How its meaning will change? What will remain of the original meaning of the language?

When we consider a road map or a map of the territory we note that they contain different information that are represented by different means, according to the purpose for which they were created: each time we find colors, symbols and words that recall a precise meaning. What happens if I take these techniques of representation, these symbols, and take off the scope for which they were created and mingle them with each other? Will it be for the reader a text in a foreign language, that is meaningless, or through the world of associations and references that each of us possesses, will generate a new language?

In another example, a bar code is nothing but the representation of a series of numbers through lines of different thickness. Is it possible to extrapolate from that language his formal structure in order to develop a new language? This new language will be able to generate new meanings? To do this you can work on formal rules, studying possible changes and developments, increasingly moving away from the point of departure.

In my drawings I try to apply this process of work. The subjects of my study are the cartographic representation, the figures in the manuals of medicine, the sheets of the herbals with their  rules for the classification of the plants, the ancient manuals that collect all the known form of real and imaginary animals, the facial expressions and physiognomy, the pornography, the structure of flags, and so on. All these are languages owning their own lexicon; my trial is to isolate and reinvent that lexicon.

In the oil paintings something different happens. I usually paint on canvas when I need to tell a story. Often this story takes origin form something that is related to my personal experience, or from my real life, something I’ve read, someone i’ve known. This is why the most part of my canvases aren’t part of a series but are isolated narrations.

My preferred techniques are classic oils on canvas paintings, and pencil drawings that I paint afterwards with oil colors. In both cases the work proceeds always sedimenting several layers one on the other.