Bad Thoughts
Needed
1. A poetry book (by choice)
2. Corn paste
3. White cardboard
Instructions
– Choose a poem.
– Do not attempt to familiarize with it.
– Fix in mind the dominant figures (words or groups of words)
– Search for visual figures, similar to linguistic one
PLEASE NOTE: The non- illustrative form passes first through its sensation and slowly, only afterwards, brings it back to reality. (F. Bacon)
Self-design achieves its goal if everyone designs by himself.
The work I propose as a reference, the forms that compose it, were born after the reading of “Bad thoughts” by Paul Valéry, not a proper book of poetry , but a collection of observations on the human spirit.
From other readings other forms will be born.
The instructions for making corn paste are easily found on the net. Anyway, what is needed to make something similar to the work in the photo is :
– 150 grams of cornstarch (Maizena)
– gr. 150 of vinavil
– 1 large spoonful of Vaseline oil (or Jonhson oil)
– 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Amalgamate everything. Fig.2
Combining a tip of black acrylic or tempera you will obtain a grey paste Fig.3
– Roll out the dough with a rolling pin or cylinder, to obtain small flat shapes, with a diameter of about 10 cm, thickness 2 or 3 mm.
– Work fast enough to prevent the dough from drying out too much.
– Cut the obtained sheet and join parts to create three-dimensional shapes after reading the chosen composition, with the state of mind described above, (in the instructions).
– To join and weld the parts, moisten the edges in case the dough is too dry.
– To support the moulds during their air drying, fill them with crumpled paper if necessary. Fig.4/5/6/7/8
ONCE IMAGINED WHERE AND HOW FORMS COULD OCCUPY THE SPACE, RETURN TO THE PHYSICAL WORLD AND CONSTRUCT THE BASES OF SCULPTURES.
Their position influences and determines their character. Their proximity or distance also substantially defines their nature.
(It could be of help in this phase, a young man of about twelve years, an expert builder of polyhedra in cardboard).
Fig.9
Bio
Manuela Cirino (1962) lives and works in Novara and Milan. She studied at the Brera Accademia di Brera with Luciano Fabro. From 1990 to 1993 she worked on a collective project with Marossi, Almeoni and Donzelli, exhibiting at Care of and Galleria Massimo Minini. She has held numerous solo shows including Valeria Belvedere in 1997, the Neon Gallery in Bologna in 1998, and the Galleria Ciocca in Milan with the following exhibitions: Second attempt, in 2000; Infiniti in 2005 and Il Catalogo delle cose in 2009. In 2000 she participated in a project curated by the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Miami with William Kentridge.
In 2012/2013 she presented the project L’immagine Negata, Galleria Martano and in 2014/15 at Galleria Milano. Among the group shows: Galleria 102, Düsseldorf in 1994; E’ nella mia natura, Galleria Neon, Bologna; Art Fiction, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 1998; Il Guardiano e il Passero, Galleria 101, Ottawa Canada 2003; Attraversamenti, Mar & Partners, Turin, 2007; Terra! Palazzo Botton, Castellamonte, 2016 and Galleria Francesca Antonini, 2018.
Always interested in declining sculpture in open forms, in relation to time, the permanence of the image, drawing and text.
Since 2012, with the project L’Immagine Negata (Galleria Martano, Turin 2012/2013 and Galleria Milano, 2014/15) focuses on the reflection on the relationship between work and spectator, in a sort of exchange of roles, in a transformation of the perception of reality, where the object becomes the subject, revolving around the idea of containing, disappearing, permanence. The project foresees that the moment of the complete and full vision of the work, takes place only in a domestic and private dimension. A critique of the contemporary system, to subtract the work from the unstoppable consumption of images.
In her current research she returns to reflect on the idea of sculpture, of subject and the concept of a device for its vision.
