Something is About to Happen (complete series)
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 then editioned four times, completed in 2017-2018.
"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.’"