While I was in Newcastle the other weekend I had chance
to go to the Baltic. They're starting to get ready for the Turner Prize so there weren't many exhibitions but there was however a small collection of work by Maurizio Anzeri that caught my attention.
I'd come across his work before but not in real life. I hadn't realised how small the pieces are. It makes them strangely personal and intimate.
His art seems to bring together a couple of fascinations we have within our society and media. Firstly, through his use of found vintage photographs, our obsession with the past; our constant nostalgia for times that seem alien to the world we live in, seen in the vintage style clothes we wear and the period dramas we watch. And secondly, being drawn to things that we find unnerving and that frighten us.
The pieces, although very beautifully threaded and designed, are very unnerving. I think it's an instinctual fear; an obscured face is frightening to us. You can't read it or recognise it's features so it takes on a creature-like and monstrous appearance. But also comic, espeically in the complete juxtaposition between the often sophisticated poses and the obscure tribalesque pattern imprinted over the top.
At first I thought his art was about the way we read and interpret faces but after reading the interview I've linked to below, I've realised the concept is much more poignant and poetic. It's about the loss of identity which will happen to all of us one day. Even without their faces covered, they would still be unidentifiable.
Here's a quick sketch I did whilst in the gallery. It was interesting drawing directly from the pieces because of the different lines and shapes that now makes up the portrait.
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