HINTS
Trionfo di Bacco e Arianna
Pencil on Paper
47 x 29 cm
1 2 3 4
* I recommend to install unicode characters to read the different alphabets that will be found later in the text
1
The first revealing element of the work is the flag of Earth fluttering to the left, a flag conceived and designed in 1970 by the farmer James W. Cadle. His design, who later became an image of public domain in 2003, represents the world, a circle of blue borderless water, in the middle of black universe, flanked by a white circle, the moon, and the big yellow sun.
A girl with flowing fuchsia curly hair floats above the funeral sculpture of Paa Joe, a Ghanese artist and artisan specialized in wooden hand painted coffin personalization.
His art stands not to entertain, it’s rather an artistic elaboration towards a serene approach to accepting death, accompanied by a sense of accompanying the deceased with style towards his next stage.
His works are inserted in a community and cultural context already accustomed to this concept of overcoming death.
Just below, crowned with a Lei (traditional Hawaiian garland symbol of affection and hospitality) we find Boa Sr, one of the oldest members of the population of the Great Andaman - located in the Bay of Bengal, who was the last person able to speak the language Aka-Bo, extinct after her passing away in 2010.
A little girl adorned with the traditional Greenland back cover Nuilarmiut made up of hundreds of colored beads, sits on the shoulders of a red-haired girl dressed in a colored silk ikat, her face was inspired by the portrait of a Uyghur girl ( (ئۇيغۇر o уйғурлар) -
Turkic-speaking Muslim population, from the autonomous region of Eastern Turkestan.
In the lower left corner, a woman sitted and dressed with swollen skirts, resembling a traditional dress made of white laces worn during the religious celebration of the Orixas - the Candomblé, in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, even though some colored soutanes appear under the white ones in some historical pictures of Candomblé.
What I wanted to inspire through this figure is theflexible language of syncretism.
Besides remembering its archetypical complexity, Candomblé developed from oral traditions and creolization of Yoruba, Fon, Ewe, Bantu’s beliefs and cosmogonies during Transatlantic slaves deportation’s centuries.
A young woman is sitted on a Sicilian cart, ornated with non-traditional decorations, the female figure is taking the former place of Bacchus in the original painting by Carracci.
Her hair is made by a bush of scented flowers whose nectar nourishes the hummingbird always beside her.
A bunch of valueless currency, reporting 0000 numbers, is waved with impetus on one hand, while on her other arm a tattoo in Baybayin script writes ᜋᜎᜐᜃᜒᜆ᜔ "Malasakit".
Malasakit it’s a concept, a cultural value, a virtue of one that has an impact on the others
that can be described as “care for something or someone like it were one’s own.”
Malasakit has no exact and direct translation in English but it may be connected with the word empathy even though it doesn’t capture the full essence of it.
MA LA SA KI T
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The Baybayin abugida is the authentic system of writing of the Tagalog language in the Philippines, ancient probably since 1300, now in disuse and almost forgotten after colonization.
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In the lower left corner, a woman sitted and dressed with swollen skirts, resembling a traditional dress made of white laces worn during the religious celebration of the Orixas - the Candomblé, in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, even though some colored soutanes appear under the white ones in some historical pictures of Candomblé.
What I wanted to inspire through this figure is theflexible language of syncretism.
Besides remembering its archetypical complexity, Candomblé developed from oral traditions and creolization of Yoruba, Fon, Ewe, Bantu’s beliefs and cosmogonies during Transatlantic slaves deportation’s centuries.
A young woman is sitted on a Sicilian cart, ornated with non-traditional decorations, the female figure is taking the former place of Bacchus in the original painting by Carracci.
Her hair is made by a bush of scented flowers whose nectar nourishes the hummingbird always beside her.
A bunch of valueless currency, reporting 0000 numbers, is waved with impetus on one hand, while on her other arm a tattoo in Baybayin script writes ᜋᜎᜐᜃᜒᜆ᜔ "Malasakit".
Malasakit it’s a concept, a cultural value, a virtue of one that has an impact on the others
that can be described as “care for something or someone like it were one’s own.”
Malasakit has no exact and direct translation in English but it may be connected with the word empathy even though it doesn’t capture the full essence of it.
MA LA SA KI T
The Baybayin abugida is the authentic system of writing of the Tagalog language in the Philippines, ancient probably since 1300, now in disuse and almost forgotten after colonization.
2
A putto or amorino (Italian term used in the History of Art to indicate a naked cherub or a cupid in Renaissance art to represent the omnipresence of God) with flamingo wings crowning a man with a pandoro - a traditional Italian Christmas sweet bread from Verona.
The man takes Arianna's place on the Carracci's original painting and wears a cape, a cloack with a writing on it, which could be read at first glance as the most predictable "Cream - Cash Rules Everything Around Me" or as I prefer to think that between the folds the writing conceals a O that stands for Oream (which I rename as Opinions Rule Everything Around Me).
The wheels of the wagon on which he travels are engraved with five sentences.
The first one : ᑲᑎᒐᒃᑭᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓇᖅ ("Katiruutarivagit", in the Inuktitut language means "nice to meet you") and
ᒫᓂᒥᐅᑦᓴᔭᐅᕕᑦ? ("Maanimiutsajauvit" in the Inuktitut language "are you from around here?") These sentences turn to the observer.
In the sticks of the first wheel appear the syllables ᏙᎯ Do-Hi in Tsalagi, a Iroquoian language spoken by Cherokee people (original residents of the current North and Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee) Do-hi in Tsalagi means peace and good health.
In the second wheel, between the sticks, in Tsalagi the word ᏅᏓ Nuu-Dah which means "sun" or "moon" - the meaning is the same, I chose this word for its interesting ambivalence.
The man takes Arianna's place on the Carracci's original painting and wears a cape, a cloack with a writing on it, which could be read at first glance as the most predictable "Cream - Cash Rules Everything Around Me" or as I prefer to think that between the folds the writing conceals a O that stands for Oream (which I rename as Opinions Rule Everything Around Me).
The wheels of the wagon on which he travels are engraved with five sentences.
The first one : ᑲᑎᒐᒃᑭᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓇᖅ ("Katiruutarivagit", in the Inuktitut language means "nice to meet you") and
ᒫᓂᒥᐅᑦᓴᔭᐅᕕᑦ? ("Maanimiutsajauvit" in the Inuktitut language "are you from around here?") These sentences turn to the observer.
In the sticks of the first wheel appear the syllables ᏙᎯ Do-Hi in Tsalagi, a Iroquoian language spoken by Cherokee people (original residents of the current North and Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee) Do-hi in Tsalagi means peace and good health.
In the second wheel, between the sticks, in Tsalagi the word ᏅᏓ Nuu-Dah which means "sun" or "moon" - the meaning is the same, I chose this word for its interesting ambivalence.
The second wheel engraves a phrase written in hieroglyphics belonging to the Mi'kmaq language, belonging to the Algonquian family, spoken by the First Nations populations of the current Eastern Canada.
The Mi'kmaq alphabet is presumably a mnemonic system of symbols useful for remembering articulated concepts or thoughts, often the symbols were engraved on wood or bark, I wanted to represent it as a celebration of ingenuity and inventiveness.
The phrase means "Why are all these different steps necessary?”and is represented as follows:
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The decoration on the carousel pony writes in Arabic متمرد which indicated the verb "to rebel".
The gold jewel of the boy with the microphone is a work by Kali Arulpragasam, from the political jewelry collection "Terrorism Affects Tourism", which depicts as postcards the positive aspects of the countries tormented by the war, here is depicted the jewel of Haiti.
The plumage adorning the boy takes inspiration from the costumes of the Powwow celebrations.
A child is intent on looking forward to the parade, wearing oversized pants with the emblematic graphics of Andy Takakjian made for the skater Mark Gonzales.
![]()
The Mi'kmaq alphabet is presumably a mnemonic system of symbols useful for remembering articulated concepts or thoughts, often the symbols were engraved on wood or bark, I wanted to represent it as a celebration of ingenuity and inventiveness.
The phrase means "Why are all these different steps necessary?”and is represented as follows:
The decoration on the carousel pony writes in Arabic متمرد which indicated the verb "to rebel".
The gold jewel of the boy with the microphone is a work by Kali Arulpragasam, from the political jewelry collection "Terrorism Affects Tourism", which depicts as postcards the positive aspects of the countries tormented by the war, here is depicted the jewel of Haiti.
The plumage adorning the boy takes inspiration from the costumes of the Powwow celebrations.
A child is intent on looking forward to the parade, wearing oversized pants with the emblematic graphics of Andy Takakjian made for the skater Mark Gonzales.
3
An angel is about to enter a black hole, guided by a rainbow light, flying towards a hidden dimension. The angel wears a headdress by the Haitian artist Moro Baruk, a mask created in papier-mâché of a toucan, as if it were a totemic emanation.
The angel olds in her/his hands the book of "Gentlemen of Bacongo" by Daniele Tamagni, which brings with it in the new dimension.
This drawing is dedicated to him.
A woman applauds in celebration, likewise in Carracci's original painting - is one of the Maenads.
In this version here is represented as a woman with multifaceted features, she takes inspirations from Rashaida costumes, a population of Bedouin-Arab descent dwelling the Red Sea region between Eritrea and Sudan, the dress is mixed with the surrealist costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka, the large soutane however is drawn with the symbols of a celestial globe, representation of the Primum Mobile, that in classical, medieval and Renaissance astronomy, was the outermost moving sphere in the geocentric model of the universe.
Primum Mobile is also found within Palazzo Farnese’s frescos itself.
On the ground, on a silk carpet appear in Accadic alphabet, one of the oldest Semitic language used in Mesopotamia, two words that express "Allu" and "Sulmu", simple words of greeting.
On the carpet lies part of the work of the artist Jennifer Lyn Morone whose work reflects on the attempt to establish the value of an individual in a data-driven economy. As an act of protest against the exploitative nature of companies and the growing data industry , the artist has registered as a corporation that sells his personal data, including photographs, home addresses, medical examinations in the form of packages or prepaid cards, divided by fields: economy, lifestyle, health, etc.
I chose the "identity" card.
A dancer of the Bolivian Caporales dance, cheerfully plays with a violet fluid that reveals a Nsibidi symbol, an ancient writing system from the Calabar region of southern Nigeria.
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which has a very strong and complex meaning in Igbo culture (South East Nigeria), often referred to as a guardian soul or angel, or used to express the transition period of light becoming dark and vice versa, it seems also to underline the inability or the limit of words (to not be interpreted in negative terms) to express feelings or conditions, the Chi can also be the way to call a person in his non-terrestrial dimension.
The Chi is deepen in an article by prof. Abiola Irele on the work of the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe: "[...] The Igbo believe that a man receives his gifts or talents, his character [...] before coming into the world. It seems that at that point there is an element of choice at its disposal and that its Who presides over bargaining. Hence the saying "Obu etu nya na chie si kwu", often used when the misfortune of a man is somehow beyond comprehension and therefore can be attributed only to an agreement that he himself stipulated, at the beginning of everything, only with his Chi, because there is a fundamental justice in the universe and nothing so terrible can happen to a person for whom he is not responsible in any way. [...] ".
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ALLU SULMU
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On the carpet lies part of the work of the artist Jennifer Lyn Morone whose work reflects on the attempt to establish the value of an individual in a data-driven economy. As an act of protest against the exploitative nature of companies and the growing data industry , the artist has registered as a corporation that sells his personal data, including photographs, home addresses, medical examinations in the form of packages or prepaid cards, divided by fields: economy, lifestyle, health, etc.
I chose the "identity" card.
A dancer of the Bolivian Caporales dance, cheerfully plays with a violet fluid that reveals a Nsibidi symbol, an ancient writing system from the Calabar region of southern Nigeria.
The symbol is the Chi
which has a very strong and complex meaning in Igbo culture (South East Nigeria), often referred to as a guardian soul or angel, or used to express the transition period of light becoming dark and vice versa, it seems also to underline the inability or the limit of words (to not be interpreted in negative terms) to express feelings or conditions, the Chi can also be the way to call a person in his non-terrestrial dimension.
The Chi is deepen in an article by prof. Abiola Irele on the work of the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe: "[...] The Igbo believe that a man receives his gifts or talents, his character [...] before coming into the world. It seems that at that point there is an element of choice at its disposal and that its Who presides over bargaining. Hence the saying "Obu etu nya na chie si kwu", often used when the misfortune of a man is somehow beyond comprehension and therefore can be attributed only to an agreement that he himself stipulated, at the beginning of everything, only with his Chi, because there is a fundamental justice in the universe and nothing so terrible can happen to a person for whom he is not responsible in any way. [...] ".
4
Placed at the bottom right, in the space usually used for the artist’s signature, the figure of a woman lying on her stomach appears, revelaning the naturalness of her shapes, while her countenance and aspect is hidden by a Tulipa Gesneriana, speckled with white and crimson red.
In certain floral symbols, the tulip represents the sense of true love. This detail seems a sort of metaphorical puzzle to express an unconditional gesture of affection towards the body.
A woman floats sitted on a soap bubble or a sphere of light and liquid, floating with no gravity around, the sphere has no ups or downs, corners, edges nor even borders.
She holds two children in her arms and the tattoo impressed on her chest writes
the word ⵜⵉⴷⴷⵓⴽⴽⵍⴰ (Tiddukkla), which means friendship, written in Tifinagh alphabet, in Tamazight language spoken by many populations around the Sahara, although the origin of the writing is uncertain Tifinagh is linked to the Phoenician alphabet and has been present for more than two thousand years.
Tifinagh alphabet owns transcultural features, it can gathers and can express, since ages, different spoken languages from the desert.
As it's known, desert is continuously changing shape and therefore also its “borders”, as the wind blows careless.
In certain floral symbols, the tulip represents the sense of true love. This detail seems a sort of metaphorical puzzle to express an unconditional gesture of affection towards the body.
A woman floats sitted on a soap bubble or a sphere of light and liquid, floating with no gravity around, the sphere has no ups or downs, corners, edges nor even borders.
She holds two children in her arms and the tattoo impressed on her chest writes
the word ⵜⵉⴷⴷⵓⴽⴽⵍⴰ (Tiddukkla), which means friendship, written in Tifinagh alphabet, in Tamazight language spoken by many populations around the Sahara, although the origin of the writing is uncertain Tifinagh is linked to the Phoenician alphabet and has been present for more than two thousand years.
Tifinagh alphabet owns transcultural features, it can gathers and can express, since ages, different spoken languages from the desert.
As it's known, desert is continuously changing shape and therefore also its “borders”, as the wind blows careless.
The golden balloons create a writing “ES” : can be read as the Spanish for IS or the modern psychology concept for the ES as the voice of nature in the soul of person or the most archaic intrapsychic instance of our mind.
Three natural elements are contained in this figure : the first is gravity that shapes the luminescentsphere and all the planets of the known universe, the second is the desert air or wind
that sweeps the boundaries and blows on the tattooed chest and through the woman’s hair, and finally the helium that inflates the balloons, the second most widespread chemical element in the universe after hydrogen.
These three elements, although invisible and intangible, allow their presence to be perceived, thanks to the connection with other objects in which they are inserted (balloons) or in the shape they assume (sphere).
My self-portrait in the golden foil balloon.
Chatr Bookstore in Marrakech who guided me in the choice of the Tamazight dictionary,
Karim Metref for the correct revision of Tamazight script,
The Cherokee Nation for the correct revision of Tsalagi script,
Ate Loren for the correct revision of Baybain script,
my travels
and the internet.
The connecting dots and associations of ideas of each artwork’s element is left to the free interpretation of the reader, my personal intention was to celebrate human eclecticism and the energy and spirituality condensed in enigmas, such as a positive driving force.
I also felt the urge to remember feelings and testimonies that I fear may disappear,
from the reminescence of dreams to endangered linguistic patrimonies, to cite artists that have influenced my thoughts,
to put the accent on ambivalence and ambiguity of words, to hazard through figurative drawing elusive and underground sensations, to convey the existence of different levels of reality, unknown dimensions or familiar landscapes
and merely enjoying them visually.
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