Filippo Sciascia
All We Have, 2021
Gesso, oil on canvas
120 x 100 cm
Copyright The Artist
Further images
In the exhibition, the titular All We Have is placed above one of the windows of the gallery space. The aperture looks out onto the wooded surrounds of the Gillman...
In the exhibition, the titular All We Have is placed above one of the windows of the gallery space. The aperture looks out onto the wooded surrounds of the Gillman Barracks precinct, and poised above the narrow vista of green is the painting, which consists of the titular phrase rendered as if to seem that the text is a-glow, or fabricated from light tubes. Where Sciascia’s other work substitutes the depiction of light in with actual light sources, the reverse is accomplished here: what seems to be genuine light on the canvas turns out to be but a mimetic representation of, a return to art historical praxis. The motif of light, of course, is conceptually tied to the artist’s abiding interest in the histories of art, technology and the natural environment, a theme that is reinforced by the work’s proximity to the spatial realities of its presence - the declaration made by the painting seems almost to serve as a bald assessment of the wooded view beyond, the botanical production of energy through light mirrored in the light-shrouded text of the canvas. Mixed into the textual portion of the work is an ingredient that Sciascia sometime utilizes in his work: melatonin powder. Melatonin is produced by the human body to regulate our circadian cycles and sleep, and here it emphasizes the importance of natural light - as well as its absence, a fact that dovetails with the pretense of actual light in the painting.
Exhibitions
All We Have (2021)1
of
17