F R A G I L E

A project inspired by Ukai (cormorant fishing) concept and Style by Zixuan Liu

Photo assistant: Mattia Ferrari, Model: Weiwei Lin, MUA: Perla Rangheri, Retouch: Alessandro Fabbro. A special thank to Digital Touch, Verona ITA

Mixed media

The dimension hidden behind the surface of a mirror is as real as the dimension in which we live. Through the lens, the same rules of the dimension we know exist, space is expanded in the same way we know in this dimention. In this research I wanted to investigate the possibility of putting into practice a game I used to play as a child, imagining that I also possessed the space beyond the mirror, by staging the first part of Lewis Carrol's famous book. For this work I experimented with the Cross Over technique, i.e. shooting with a DIAPO film but requesting development as if it were a negative. After trying a few, I found the most functional solution that allowed me to translate the colours of that dimention.

The mask is a powerful tool that allows us to enter a dimension that 'awake' we dare not visit. The mask possesses us, it drags us down deep into our selves, bringing out those hidden parts that we dare not let out. It makes us brave, magical, it opens the door to ancestral powers. It gives us the possibility to be what we desire, to move and pose as we otherwise would not. Who will I be tomorrow? In what new powers will I sail?

Mixed Media on vintage photograph

This work is featured in the Issue 14 and in the exhibition "Our Stories" of PhotoTrouveè Magazine

How different is the perception of life between feeling (inside) and the reality that surrounds us (outside)? I would liken our mind to a room, our secret room that allows us to impersonate what we really feel we are, what we believe we belong to.

The research addresses skin and body. Body Modification, as an art that resorts to the body in situations of suffering, has an extreme means of fighting against the difficulties of living. The skin is attacked in an attempt to reach the most inaccessible depths of the self. Today, it is important to acquire the ability to continuously redefine ourself. The goal becomes one of self-representation in society, where the depiction of one's own image tends to prevail over everything. Visually, through the medium of photography, the body is conceived as a series of fragments that can be recomposed at will and hybridised: the sign, the trace, the cut, are intended to mutate the image. Taking the various parts of the body, already modified and marked by the tattoo and the cut, is recompose, with several elements of different individuals, creating an apparent formal and aesthetic unity that in reality is not one but many parts. The scarred and wounded body is a place of spatial experimentation, it is shattered and recomposed, it presents itself in the form of directions, elements that overlap, intersect, trace relationships with the surface, reveal themselves as other than what they actually are. The attempt communicates the sense of the human condition in the face of a destabilising reality.

In today's society, the difficulty of relating is manifested even in the most intimate ties. Affective relationships have become uncertain and frivolous. The satisfaction of personal pleasure takes first place on the scale of values, transforming the body into a receptor capable of feeling emotions on command. Moreover, an excess of media information crowds our present, giving rise to a paradox: hyper-communication results in a lack of messages, symbols and deep vibrations of their experience. Here I focus on intimacy, working on the body and portraits. Memories of sincere and innocent bonds materialise on the prints and become the means to rediscover the most authentic emotions.

Digital photo printed on zinc foil - cm 150 x 105