Construction is a political, cultural, and literary magazine, this week has published Fragments.
“Out of monuments, names, words, proverbs,
traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories,
passages of books, and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from
the deluge of time” (FrancisBacon)
..heads, human bodies, flowers, landscapes, myth and mythology,……. a
universe of signs, symbols, numbers, images, fragments, memories, words
and unfinished sentences, hidden and deleted; Siro ‘s works are
characterized by figures that no longer correspond to the names we gave
them, do not respect the traditional narrative, creating an autonomous
language, a personal language and unknown, full of archaic and
metaphorical meanings. Not as clear images, but in the way memories
often present themselves to us; as in a dream, veiled, without logic ,
incomplete and colored by the moment.
“My work collects and systemizes the impressions of my everyday
life…. My ideas are linked by the exploration of “what remains,” from
fragments to collections of detritus… photos, drawings…….memories
accumulated , events and people, . This body of work represents a daily
practice of searching, thinking and creating visual ideas”.
Siro Cugusi ‘s process does not necessarily strive towards a
preconceived result but can rather be seen as a sublimation of recalled
images. In his paintings and drawings he often uses canvas, paper, wood
and already existing materials, like, packing paper, pages of books,
newspapers or encyclopedias. With his practice he mixes the original
function of these materials with his personal imagery.
“...It is a search, a constant search…..I respond very much to
what is around me, I absorb things visually and collect them as
thoughts, and if they resonate with me they will find their way out and
into my work. Sometimes it takes years for something to enter the
work, it lies dormant waiting to be activated……….I often draw or jot
down these ideas and store them away. I sometimes stumble across them
while rummaging through my notebooks in my studio and sometimes these
ideas, thoughts, just come out on their own.”
Siro in no way fears measuring himself against materials and
techniques. Quite the contrary, he freely allows himself to be
influenced and in a certain sense seduced and swept away as he adopts
means of expression that derive from other artists, from observations
and opportunities, from meaningful functionalities, from the
intermingling of genres and languages.
“My influences vary continually. They are so many levels in which
my work is informed. Many of these levels of influence are separate from
a recorded history, they are of a more personal history.”
The work of Siro is the result of passion for painting and the
will to convey through the layers of pigment on the surface, his need
for knowledge. The matter is put in successive layers to get a feeling
of insecurity and imbalance between the bottom and shape.
“My work is a result of a layering process with materials and
color. These layers are then scratched and scraped away to reveal the
series of layers underneath. It is a constant experiment and an
enhancement of my artistic abilities. The combination of somewhat
materials such as oil paint, enamel, acrylic paint, spray paints,
markers, colored pencils, oil wax pastels etc. allows me to have a more
differentiated working process.”
We find in his painting an understanding of the deeper character of
reality, the life of nature, decomposition and the alchemical
transformation of elements: reflection on the human being and time. The
works seem to be born in an imaginary place to go then in real space….
becomes thin the boundary between figurative and abstract images.
“The thing I am always most interested in investigating in
painting is the field of tension between the figurative and the
abstract………..When I start a painting I don’t have a specific picture in
my mind’s eye. Each picture has to evolve out of a painterly or visual
logic: it has to emerge as if inevitably……..If, while I’m painting, I
distort or destroy a motif, it is not a planned or conscious act, but
rather it has a different justification: I see the motif, the way I
painted it, is somehow ugly or unbearable. Then I try to follow my
feelings and make it attractive. And that means a process of painting,
changing or destroying until I think it has improved. And I don’t demand
an explanation from myself as to why this is so.
Construction is a political, cultural, and literary magazine. It is an independent start-up that does not break news but publishes critical and informative content. Since its inception in June 2011, it has featured interviews with figures such as Steve Hindy, president of the Brooklyn Brewery, and The New Yorker’s Joan Acocella; profiles of the biographer Robert Caro and the literary critic Edward Said; Benjamin Taylor’s introduction to the selected letters of Saul Bellow; a wide array of political and cultural commentary; and a diverse, international collection of original fiction, poetry, and visual art by known and unknown artists alike. Construction exists to fill a content void left by major newspapers, real-time aggregators, topic-specific sites, and personal bloggers.