THE WALLS
1978 - 1998
Although in Italy the 80s are synonym with political corruption, worldwide they were characterised by positive phenomena, like the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
In this fifth and penultimate artwork - in strictly chronological order of the artistic cyclus - the street style of early graffiti and punk alternates with the bright colors of games and video games that were still simple and harmless at the time. It’s years of the Rubik’s Cube and Tetris, invented by a Hungarian and a Soviet citizen respectively...
Three isolated, discreet and tragically enigmatic details make history by themselves: the broken clock at the Bologna Station, where time stopped at 10.25am on a Saturday in August; the reactor n. 4 of the Lenin Power Plant in Chernobyl, which exploded during a very unfortunate night security test; and the massacre of Tiananmen Square.
These events leave a distinct mark on an era, the beginning of an end: the years of Lead and the strategy of tension; the cold war or rather the years of Soviet power politics.
Gorbačëv has just come into power when the radioactive cloud spreads beyond the Iron Curtain.
Towards the Third Millennium everything becomes post. Take Pulp Fiction, where John Travolta pays ironic homage to himself and Grease dancing with no shoes and holes in his socks and wins a trophy handed by a Marilyn impersonator.
The black on this Berkel slicer is carbon copy.
Technique:
silver leaf, engraving, graffiti, transparent colors for glass.
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