Something is About to Happen (installation views)
This is a series of gum bichromate prints created at the Officina Stamperia del Notaio in Tusa, Sicily for a site-specific installation. Images taken while roaming the countryside surrounding Tusa were developed in the sun using raw pigments. The works in this series are unique prints on Fabriano Tiepolo paper. The series was begun in 2016 and completed in 2018, in a variable edition of four.
Images taken while roaming the countryside were developed in the sun using raw pigments. This suite of images interprets and understands the conditions that characterize the physical and psychological experience of the landscape. Ideas of surveillance are provided by the panoptic nature of medieval walled hill-towns and evidenced in many ways by the vernacular architecture: the exterior and interior landscapes that are viewed simultaneously; the cultural importance of balconies, terraces, courtyards, and piazzas; the aspect of community control and veiled observation through curtains and louvered shutters; the sense of being both the actor and spectator in this context where one expects they are being observed at all times by an unseen eye. The desire to see the landscape through walking and exploring places that are hidden are echoed by the circular form of the book that are reminiscent of a retina, camera shutter, winding streets that spiral out from a central square, or a territory’s perimeter and boundary. The pervasive stigma and suspicion of a woman walking alone or exploring the country roads is still prevalent: the unaccompanied woman wandering without purpose must be up to no good, shirking her domestic duties, or mentally unstable. The artist pushes against this by using walking as part of her practice - as such, the motive of art-making buys her a ‘free pass’. The experience is predominantly one of longing and the urge to move through space as a proclamation of free will and to defend against stagnation, suffocation, and the perils of the evil eye. The sense of being encircled, enclosed, restricted, and smothered is countered by the sense of being expanded, exalted, enchanted and set free. This duality is present in the physical landscape; where tight corridors and secret passageways give way to expansive views of mountains and sea. It also extends to one’s intimate territory of identity and sense of being. The interior and exterior are constantly abutting one another. In both cases, whether physical or emotional, the passage between spaces involves an aspect of mystery, anticipation, and sometimes painful transition.
"In this place that is rife with contradictions, perhaps the contradiction most intensely felt is the one that is hardest to identify. The sense of being encircled, enclosed, restricted, and smothered is countered by the sense of being expanded, exalted, enchanted and set free. This duality is present in the physical landscape; where tight corridors and secret passageways give way to expansive views of mountains and sea. It also extends to one’s intimate territory of identity and sense of being. The interior and exterior are constantly abutting one another. In both cases, whether physical or emotional, the passage between spaces involves a significant and sometimes painful transition.
The artworks in this viewing respond to the unique context of Tusa. Both artists were inspired to interpret and understand the conditions that characterize ones physical and psychological experience of this extraordinary place.
From Serena Perrone’s vantage point, the experience is predominantly one of longing and the urge to move through space as a proclamation of free will and to defend against stagnation, suffocation, and the perils of the evil eye. In her words, ‘the borders between the interior and exterior hold mystery and danger because they are inherently precarious. To move blithely between the two requires poise and self-assurance because this is a no-man’s land where one must travel alone with measured steps. My steps continually lead me to open spaces where I am elevated and my eyes, like lungs, can fill themselves with the breath of the land and the expanse of the horizon. Along the way, I observe signals and perceive omens that serve as my navigation tools. This is the only remedy.’"
