Filippo Sciascia
Fotosintesi Clorofilliana, 2019
Oil on wood and aluminum
102 x 198 cm
Copyright The Artist
By grinding leaves and extracting the juice from them in an almost ritualistic manner, Sciascia uses this process to obtain chlorophyll essence and then mixes this with natural pigments to...
By grinding leaves and extracting the juice from them in an almost ritualistic manner, Sciascia uses this process to obtain chlorophyll essence and then mixes this with natural pigments to make green paint. He symbolically uses the authentic sources of his concepts in his works instead of merely painting it on, in this case chlorophyll, which captures light and turns it into food for the plant through photosynthesis. Similarly, he has previously also used materials like crushed melatonin pills and symbolically applied it to his works, to allude to the circadian cycle and how it regulates our sleep cycles.
Through this process, Sciascia amplifies the conceptual dimensions of the work with a raw representation of chlorophyll, the mechanism that literally captures light. He breaks away from the academic style of strictly realistic, representational painting and connects nature to the production of his work. Fotosintesi Clorofilliana uses green pigment made from chlorophyll pigments extracted from leaves to paint a field of monochromatic green. The natural and organic in this abstract work is intensified, through its juxtaposition against the aluminium used in the work. Aluminium being a hard, industrial material commonly used during the Industrial Revolution contrasts against the soft monochromatic paint mixed from organic pigments.
Through this process, Sciascia amplifies the conceptual dimensions of the work with a raw representation of chlorophyll, the mechanism that literally captures light. He breaks away from the academic style of strictly realistic, representational painting and connects nature to the production of his work. Fotosintesi Clorofilliana uses green pigment made from chlorophyll pigments extracted from leaves to paint a field of monochromatic green. The natural and organic in this abstract work is intensified, through its juxtaposition against the aluminium used in the work. Aluminium being a hard, industrial material commonly used during the Industrial Revolution contrasts against the soft monochromatic paint mixed from organic pigments.