Monochromes
Posted on September 26 2023
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MONOCHROMES │ September 15 - October 19, 2023
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.Author / Curator Silvia Colombo, Antonio Muratore
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The exhibition Monochromes presented at Millepiani in Rome between September 15 and October 19, 2023, proposes a collection of monochrome photographic, graphic and video works by authors from all over the world.
Beginning with the black and white photographic images, the monochrome product is always intended as an abstraction of reality and as a representation of certain levels of human perception, of the visible and not, through which we gather information on the relationship of humankind with the world.
The exhibition as a whole it reserves a special look at aesthetic-artistic trends that arose from the 50s and 60s, in which color has a primary function in conveying or reinforcing messages and meanings, aimed at arousing emotional reactions on the part of the observer.
Beginning with the black and white photographic images, the monochrome product is always intended as an abstraction of reality and as a representation of certain levels of human perception, of the visible and not, through which we gather information on the relationship of humankind with the world.
The exhibition as a whole it reserves a special look at aesthetic-artistic trends that arose from the 50s and 60s, in which color has a primary function in conveying or reinforcing messages and meanings, aimed at arousing emotional reactions on the part of the observer.
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Daniel Brothers, A Road Home, 2021
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It is maybe because the black & white/ monochrome photography recalls this technique’s ancient history, or maybe being a picture the record of a memory… With the group exhibition Monochromes, we open a Pandora vase where the mnemonic dimension as well as the abstraction are the main points of reference to look at.
The photos, graphic and video works exhibited shape a one-colour path that is readable on multiple levels: the aesthetic, visual, content and emotional ones. The artworks here grouped and selected are exhibited by virtue of their being monochromatic, but in fact they are linked by a deeper mutual connection.
FIrstly, the monochrome - whether it is black and white or not - gives the picture homogeneity and abstraction. For instance, despite the paintings made by the artists Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni being “just” monochromes, the non-colour white is definitely more than a simple monochromatic surface, becoming an independent dimension itself.
The photos, graphic and video works exhibited shape a one-colour path that is readable on multiple levels: the aesthetic, visual, content and emotional ones. The artworks here grouped and selected are exhibited by virtue of their being monochromatic, but in fact they are linked by a deeper mutual connection.
FIrstly, the monochrome - whether it is black and white or not - gives the picture homogeneity and abstraction. For instance, despite the paintings made by the artists Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni being “just” monochromes, the non-colour white is definitely more than a simple monochromatic surface, becoming an independent dimension itself.
Also here, a single colour palette makes the decontextualization of a detail possible, suddenly turning into something else. The image deceives the eye, the eye distracts the mind, thus starting to wander.
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Alireza Azizi, A Melancholic Wheat Field,2020
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Then, the photographic black & white images, as well as the cyanotype photography and the light impressions on film (object x-ray) are simultaneously an homage to the history of photography, but even a fresh reinterpretation conceived in times that are fleeing fast. Therefore the exhibition gives a nod to the past, but it is also an invitation to reflection, and to a prolonged observation - dynamics that are far away from our times, where we are used to sudden and immediate changes.
Within the exhibition rooms, the landscape - both urban and natural - finds a special place. On the one hand, it is investigated with a new interest, but on the other hand it is tightly connected to nostalgia (in its turn linked with our childhood memories). It is like the black and white photography is capable of taking us back to a past we have already lived, or maybe just imagined.
From another angle, the body, with its curves and imperfections, finds within the exhibition Monochromes a prominent position, bringing back a past that is gone, reminding of a kind of perfection that is hardly reachable, or an organic metaphor bridging humans and nature. Altogether.
These roads then interweave, growing into multiple paths leading to different places… places where our memories bland into each other, becoming softer and blurred.
Within the exhibition rooms, the landscape - both urban and natural - finds a special place. On the one hand, it is investigated with a new interest, but on the other hand it is tightly connected to nostalgia (in its turn linked with our childhood memories). It is like the black and white photography is capable of taking us back to a past we have already lived, or maybe just imagined.
From another angle, the body, with its curves and imperfections, finds within the exhibition Monochromes a prominent position, bringing back a past that is gone, reminding of a kind of perfection that is hardly reachable, or an organic metaphor bridging humans and nature. Altogether.
These roads then interweave, growing into multiple paths leading to different places… places where our memories bland into each other, becoming softer and blurred.
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Monochromes Exhibition Catalog │Buy it
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Maria Drakaki, On the Field with My Brother / Jellyfish, 2021
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Ales Jungmann, Krajina, 2019-2020
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Yahya Abdullah, I Remember the Souls / I Remember the Movement, 2020
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Marta Anti, Haut, 2022 │Watch the Video on Vimeo
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Jon Moore, Payers for Our Mothers, 2023
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Erin Rademacher, California Drought / I'm Good, 2022
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Diane Givry, L'Attente (Autoportrait), 2022
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Richard Luxton, Sitting Alone, 2023
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Xidong Luo, Coexisting, 2023
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Xidong Luo, Some Thoughts Curled, 2023
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Marta Checchetti, 8, 2023
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MONOCHROMES
September 15th - October 19, 2023
Millepiani - Via N. Odero,13, Rome - IT
linfo@millepiani.eu
+39 06.888.17.620
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