gustavo tonelli
an image is worth a thousand words. And so it may be. But out of that plethora of words our minds will pick and choose a handful-a very personal handful-to decode and interpret the images, the slices of life that successively-concatenating as so many diapositives-appear before us at every moment.
since early on, Gustavo-a native of Buenos Aires-has been haunted by this, the chasm that separates the way things are, from the way things appear to be. Memories, he found out, could be manipulated. He was mesmerized by the idea that the way in which we perceive and process information had more to do with our history and our circumstances than with the thing being experienced. Our memories, a fabrication; a personal selection of facts and interpretations, pondered assessed and prioritized according to the disposition of our own psyche.
this fascination with appearance and illusion-and the way they lead to deception, another favorite topic of his-was ever present in all of Gustavo's artistic endeavors (his early radio show and his music stints, his TV productions and scripts, his writings and essays, the design of the spaces inside The Chelsea in Miami), but it came to a critical realization by chance, through a series of photographs taken in Sicily.
the POSTCARDS series is a cabal example of this. Looking at the shadowboxes, our mind tricks us into believing that we are seeing the shadow of the manuscript text in the glass projected onto the photograph-forgetting, out of habit of seeing tridimensional shadows elsewhere, that the shadows on a plain will have only two dimensions. This series, introduced at a solo exhibition during Art Basel South Beach 2007, has brought him to the forefront of digital photography recognition.
Gustavo Tonelli currently splits his time between Miami and New York City.
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la vigilia permanente
La sobriedad es insoportable
Tras el constante rumiar del salado odio de mi llanto; la tristeza, la rabia, la vigilia permanente...
Se medir la eternidad.
Es la espera de un llamado.
the permanent watch
Sobreity is unbearable.
After the constant rumination of the salty hatred of my tears; the sadness, the ire, the permanent state of watch...
I've learned the measure of eternity.
It lasts the wait for a phone call. (translation by gustavo tonelli)
medium: image: digital photography on archival paper, text: on plexiglass floating an inch above photograph
dimensions: 75 x 50 in (190.5 x 127 cm)
"the vacuum that you left"
Is it possible to fill a void with another void?
To dispel nothingness with nothingness?
And if the answer be 'yes', this is this desirable?
Am I playing with fire by craftily disarming the vacuum that you left
almost three years ago,
to edify in its stead this trembling scaffold made of fear and anxiety,
vanishing hopes and desire...
medium: image: digital photography on archival paper, text: on plexiglass floating an inch above photograph
dimensions: 75 x 50 in (190.5 x 127 cm)
with hatred in our hearts
No, it does not come back.
'As if long prepared, as if courageous'.
But it does not befit our kind...
And we drag ourselves to the window with hatred in our hearts
and we bid her farewell, the chance that passed us by...
medium: image: digital photography on archival paper, text: on plexiglass floating an inch above photograph
dimensions: 75 x 50 in (190.5 x 127 cm)
