IB VISUAL ARTS 2022

Giselle De FAzio

My exhibition aims to visualise the concept of “Memories and melancholy,” by presenting a series of works that encapsulate a fragmented and emotive snapshot of a single and personal, and nostalgic part of my and my house’s life and history. Each work reflects on the briefness of the human experience, and how time seems to be relative upon reflection; hence the use of quite old methods and artforms to convey past events. I hope that the audience is able to feel almost haunted and cold in the hopes to emulate the melancholy of looking upon a past memory. Inspired by my 19th century villa’s grandeur and haunting appearance and as a result being confined within it during COVID lockdowns, my artworks aim to encompass the same ghostly tone that inspired past gothic artists and writers, who were prolific at the time my house was built. My exhibition is consistently monotone, otherwise contains very dull, musty colours to encompass a sense of intimacy and constriction, similar to the feeling of being in an old house, emphasising themes of memories and melancholy. The impact is intended to evoke a subtle feeling of discomfort and nostalgia as the viewer is invited to observe from the central, cold stool, surrounded by the coldness of the structural motifs and monotone, gothic style of the drawings, paintings, and photographs. The viewer on the stool should feel surrounded by the works, creating a feeling of intimacy, but also emptiness. The colourful paintings draw the viewers eye from the left, where there is a feeling of intimacy, to the right where the colder works are more distant and dispersed from the viewing point at the chair. Strongly inspired by the architectural forms of Antoni Gaudi, my ink drawings draw in various structural elements, while also using organic shapes to convey a more decorative and less clear image to further the themes of both memories, yet also to reflect the gothic style of my house. All artworks incorporate isolated parts of my house, my family, or a metaphorical manifestation of an emotion. The most notable structural element from my house, used consistently within all artworks is the use of arches, which act as a frame, similar to old, gothic works are framed to appear decorative. The lack of real frames on the artworks aim to give the appearance of destruction and fragmentation; to reinforce a haunting tone that is carried throughout the works. Furthermore, the consistent use of figures conveys emotions, either of joy, or empty despair for lives passed. The joyful emotions also give a feeling of melancholy to suggest that these emotions only once were and are no-longer present; the use of black and white suggests these events are from hundreds of years ago. To express my concepts of memories and melancholy, many of my artworks replicate analogue photographic and vintage techniques. Like an old photo, my prints can be replicated in black and white, yet always vary in the outcome, suggesting the malleability and the easily manipulated nature of memories, from when they were created. This is especially evident in the pinhole and Polaroid photographs. Likewise, the dry point etchings can be printed many times, yet are always going to appear differently when printed; if the plate is edited, it can never go back to its original form, like a memory held dear to someone. The use of ink creates blurry and blotchy lines, to suggest the lack of clarity there is with memories, and the clearest thing is the part of the memory you are most emotionally responsive to. These old methods of artwork creation contrast heavily to the new methods I used to create the stool; using mathematical equations, digital software Blendr, and heavy machinery to create it. This marble and wooden sculpture contains a mechanical coldness that the other works don't have due to their handmade and loose nature. The stool also aims to act as an artwork of the present; it will be a new memory that will stand in the physical world; a new addition to my house that will outlive my generation.