Macchia Siciliana
A series of unique gum bichromate photograms created in Sicily, 2019. The title of this work, Macchia Siciliana, is a variation of Macchia Mediterranea, a term that refers to the typical Maquis or shrubland biome of the arid and rocky coastal Mediterranean region. The word macchia in Italian has many meanings, including: stain, stroke, rough, taint, mark, blemish, dishonor, or disgrace.
The macchia is often flowered, gnarled, thorny, intoxicatingly aromatic, and enchanting. I collect these specimens while walking in the countryside surrounding my town in Sicily where I reside several months of the year. I use gum bichromate and the sun to stain the paper with pigment, leaving layers of silhouettes where each specimen was placed. While gathering these specimens and developing each impression, I am also changing color in the sun, and my skin turns the color of the rocky parched land they grow in. The colors evoke the sun-bleached stucco of the houses in the village and the borders of each print repeat the traditional pointed Arab arch common in the vernacular architecture. A symptom of decades of depopulation, many of the oldest houses in the historic center lie empty. Roofs and beams collapsed, the sun beats upon the ruins, the pointed arches agape, and nature takes over - the macchia grows from within.