Text by Annalisa Ramos on the occasion of “Erased” the exhibition by Paolo Ceribelli
On the occasion of the exhibition “Erased,” Paolo Ceribelli brings into being the evolution of the personal investigation to which, for years now, he has dedicated himself with painstaking dedication. From the very beginnings of his artistic research, Ceribelli’s study finds expression first in the iconography-symbol of the Plastic Soldier (2006) and later of the Frisian Horse or Anti-Tank Barricade (2016), both universally recognizable figures that can be traced back to war imagery.
In the current cycle, the artist proposes a key aimed at the distortion of the object: the goal is properly to overturn the observer’s perception so that he or she unhinges the conventional meaning attributed to a symbol, with the subsequent intention of leading him or her to develop his or her own analysis of the complexity of human nature.
With this purpose, the icons of war are estranged, decontextualized.
The use of color goes on to change the perception of the object itself and through the methodical and serial repetition of forms, sometimes obsessively ordered and sometimes deliberately disordered, the customary idea they represent is erased.
And here we see the emergence of a holistic representation, where thoughts of peace and war emerge and coexist in a complex totality far more significant than the concepts identifiable in individual forms.
The Friesian Horse is a pivotal symbol, which over the years the artist makes in different sizes, colors and materials. A classic emblem of the limit beyond which, with difficulty, we are able to push ourselves, from which we feel removed. In Ceribelli’s work, however, the anti-tank barricades of “War and Peace Structure” embrace in a collective tangle and become a pile that seems to have been accumulated and abandoned. As inert, once considered in the complexity of their whole, they lose their original function as limit and barrier. We no longer perceive them as an obstacle; on the contrary, the artist creates a counterpoint to our sensibility and the barricades become a symbol of surrender, of peace.
To the seriality of repetition, the artist connects the symbolism of the figure of the circle, also fundamental to his personal poetics.
The circular figure is, by custom, the emblematic shape of cyclic, infinite and perfect time. But the mathematical constant that gives dimension to this shape is pi, an irrational number with infinite decimal places that never repeat. A circumference, seemingly so perfect and unchanging, is a great container that gathers infinite possibilities of development and interpretation, without beginning or end.
The circle as a symbolic figure of a subjective feeling that can represent two opposing forces, the centripetal and the centrifugal, images of protection or estrangement.
The work “Untitled” also offers a deeply personal point of view depending on the viewer’s perception. The work, a stamping done in acrylic on paper, is a diptych whose parts are mirrored and contrasting. On the other hand, the lightness of the material chosen for representation must support the heavy referencing of its subjects, the Frisian Horses. The work refers to the principle of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism that highlights the essentiality of balance between opposing and complementary forces: just like the forces of war and peace that live within us, which the artist invites us to embrace with an act of assuming responsibility and consciousness.
Paolo Ceribelli does not base his artistic research on any militaristic thinking, nor is his intent to impose a prevaricating position: objective is the critical and constructive analysis of the self and one’s inner wars.
Indeed, in this exhibition, the artist takes a further step in his research and self-analysis, strips away his fears and materializes his inner struggle. The need and desire to go beyond his own limit is perceived in the stampings of the work “Cloud,” in which Ceribelli finally enacts the liberating gesture that approaches disorder and abstraction, to break the rigid mechanisms of stubborn perfection that has always been part of his poetics.
The tendency to war and the desire for peace are forces that coexist in human beings and condition their interpretation of the surrounding reality. In the exhibition “Erased,” we witness the erasure of customs to make room for one’s own perceptions, deep searches for the opposite of self and awareness of one’s own internal struggles, the starting point for self-improvement. It is, in fact, the viewer who decides whether to consider what may seem like an unequivocal message as a declaration of war or peace.
Text by Annalisa Ramos on the occasion of “Erased” the exhibition by Paolo Ceribelli
Discover the artworks by Paolo Ceribelli: http://www.rossettiartecontemporanea.it/artista/ceribelli-paolo/
Article about Erased exhibition by Paolo Ceribelli on the art magazine Itinerari nell’arte: https://www.itinerarinellarte.it/it/mostre/paolo-ceribelli-erased-5914
