BELLE ARTI CURRICULUM
CONTATTO ENGLISH
Per vedere le immagine, cliccare sulla foto…
All’isola d’Elba, la natura e la semplicità regnano.
L’idea per questa serie mi è venuta quando ero nel mio campo. C’era il sole e
il finocchiello lasciava la sua ombra sulla mia gamba. La forma
particolare della pianta mi ha parlato e ho sentito la carezza della sua
essenza. Per creare una fotogramma, ho messo un oggetto, in questo caso
un fiore, direttamente sulla carta fotografica e l’ho illuminato nella camera
oscura. La sua ombra diventa l’immagine, un po’ come una radiografia. Non c’è
una macchina fotografica e non c’è la pellicola, quindi l’immagine non può
essere riprodotta e ogni fotogramma è unico. Utilizzando questa tecnica, lascio
che la Natura entri nella camera oscura e che parli con la lingua
dell’ombra dei fiori. Così le mie emozioni ed esperienze sono tradotte in
immagini.
Quando abitavo in America ero una straniera e le mie opere
artistiche toccavano spesso il tema della memoria, in particolare i miei
ricordi di infanzia, a Malta e in Inghilterra. Quando ero ragazzina e aiutavo
mia madre a fare le torte, con la pasta rimasta facevamo sempre una piccola
torta “speciale” riempita con marmellata. Questa torta era destinata ai
bambini. Mia nonna faceva la stessa cosa. In seguito, per questo progetto
l'idea della torta “speciale” è diventato il veicolo per
rappresentare i miei ricordi e ho cominciato a cucinare. Prima di tornare
in Europa, i miei pensieri sono stati investiti dai ricordi di casa, dalla
nostalgia, da ricordi piu recenti, quelli Americani. Ogni torta “speciale”,
perciò, è stata cotta con un oggetto sigillato dentro, come per conservare un
ricordo che rappresenta un episodio della mia vita in America. Ho scelto di
presentare quest’opera con la fotografia, principalmente perche prediligo il
linguaggio fotografico, ma anche perchè la fotografia ha la capacità di
cambiare le proporzioni e di dare qualità magiche agli oggetti piccoli.
“MEDITERRANEAN MEMORIES” (2004)
As a foreigner living in the USA, family
roots and heritage carry deeper meaning in my life. Through old childhood
photographs from my family archive, I am able to reconnect and reconstruct the
family ties that bind me to the root of my existence. My family hails from
Malta, a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where the
sandy-colored limestone walls still bear the scars from World War II. I grew up
with stories of extreme hardship and pain experienced during the war, coupled
with joyous childhood memories filled with simple pleasures, pursuits and adventures.
The life-philosophy and family values that I absorbed as a child have been
engraved in my psyche and I carry them with me every day, generations later,
continents away. The family portraits in this installation come from original
negatives that surfaced after many years of being hidden away in dresser
drawers and shoe boxes. Each photograph has been hand-printed with traditional
darkroom techniques. At the age of 20, in the middle of World War II, my
grandmother gave birth to my father. Eighteen years later, she had 8 healthy,
happy children. This exhibition is dedicated to her and the legacy she has left
me with.
Historically,
women have been the primary subjects of male artists. In ‘Boys Will be Boys’
men are the subjects of a female photographer.'Boys Will be Boys' is a
photographic series that challenges the stereotypes of males by looking at the
personal bathroom habits and habitats of different men. Many men have primping
and preening obsessions that defy their male stereotype, for example dyeing
their hair, shaving their bodies and painting their nails. In the privacy of
his own bathroom, a man is able to conform to, reject or hide from the numerous
stereotypes that face them in the 21st Century. These images present a
realistic portrayal of men’s ‘private’ lives, without necessarily denying their
maleness, or masculinity.This work is partly a response to the recent
proliferation of female artists documenting and exposing their own personal
lives, and those of other women, resulting in the breakdown of the numerous
feminine stereotypes. As a post-feminist, it is my desire to counter-balance
this trend and offer an exposé of a man’s life, and challenge some of his own
stereotypes. As a curious female photographer I am able to give a non-biased,
and sometimes voyeuristic view of my male subjects.
LINK
TO ARTICLE IN CREATIVE LOAFING (4/22/2004)
“A
SENSE OF SILENCE” (1998-2001)
I
love to travel frequently and particularly like to immerse myself in a totally
alien and foreign place. Without routine and familiarity, I experience life
with the raw excitement and naïve liberty of a child, seeing and experiencing
everything for the first time. Everyday images appear unnaturally striking and
certainly more interesting when looked at through the eyes (and camera lens!)
of an outsider. I also have an inquisitive nature that leads me on wonderful
adventures. I never know what I’ll find around the next corner and I often find
myself in places where I shouldn’t be. This adds a certain thrill to my
pictures that fuels me further, and to cross more boundaries. My lifetime is a
never-ending journey of exploration and discovery and through my photography, I
feel I am able to share these discoveries with others to promote the
understanding of different cultures and different people.
Fiona Buttigieg
+39 347 274 1778
FionaBee@gmail.com