Leonardo's Lunar Conversations | Florence 2019 Biennale
Leonardo’s Lunar Conversations
This year (2019) commemorates 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci's death and 50 years since Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Leonardo da Vinci, the visionary and the only person on earth that knew everything about everything, was a scientist, mathematician, artist, sculptor and more, as well as an architect and the first man ever to do an autopsy on a human body, to gain more information about what is inside us, beyond what using a live model, can reveal.
Although he lived in the 14th century, he already envisioned aviation and foresaw the possibility of a spaceship landing on the moon. My fascination with the human body and the skeleton insiide, is evident in the use of vertebrae in many of the work. With Leonardo's Lunar conversations, I used the Vitruvian man as his mouthpiece.
In creating the series, I used metal filings in liquid form as the first layer on the canvas or board on most of the paintings. I then used an acid catalyst to rust the image into the metal filings. Acrylic paint was then used on top of the rusted surface. In "STRIPPED TO THE BONE" I played on his autopsies but also envisioned the devastating results that may occur when man spends any length of time on the moon.
"BLACK HOLE", "REMNANTS", " MOON ROCK ", "FIRST STEP" and "LEFT BEHIND" also plays on recent research on the toxic soil covering the moon (the skeleton symbolises the lack of any possibility of life on the moon, or if there ever was, there is no more.)
I used dried roots as an artist tool to create the vertebrae in the skeleton of the work "STRIPPED TO THE BONE". It was also used to create a Vitruvian man growing out of the dried roots in "LEFT BEHIND"
His most well-known painting "MONA LISA" is re- interpreted in conversation with the moon as well as Leonardo's portrait, done almost entirely with rust hence called "RUSTIC DIALOQUE" The smaller paintings was done as support to the bigger ones to create a lunar hub for conversation.
The laser printed Perspex disks, adds another layer, protecting and "talking" to the painting beneath it.
|