GIULIANO CARDELLA'S ARTISTIC UNIVERSE

Giuliano Cardella’s artwork could be related both to painting (considering his ability and effectiveness in the use of colours) and to collage and decollage techniques (considering the large use of paper fragments and an array of old and unused objects, frequently spoiled and corroded by atmospheric agents or by everyday usage).

Cardella’s artistic universe is therefore characterized by disfigured images, remodelled by the collage technique, and by simple figures, painted with acrylic colours or etched (almost “scratched”) on the wood board; figures with a style which seems to come directly from the childish sensitivity or from the oneiric world.

Many artworks are interestingly characterized by the presence of words, sometimes big and evident, sometimes hidden, emerging through the overhanging pictorial layer, as through a mysterious inward fog. Words hanging by the thread of the emotion transmitted by the artwork, with the purpose of portraying images, sounds, and emotions more than explicit and direct messages.

Some other artworks are enhanced through a further development of these themes by the addition of photographical fragments or objects and materials from ordinary life (already present in Cardella’s past sculptural productions). These objects (buttons, wooden fragments, plastic residues with different colours) are always small, apparently insignificant or classified as useless by our experience. But they are able to establish a new and deep meaning and usefulness in Cardella’s art. These objects put on the board and covered by a plastic film, almost suggest the presence of an ideal shrine which gives a new dignity and prominence to something that has been hurriedly forgotten.

Among these objects, buttons are particularly significant, symbolizing humbleness and normality on one hand, and union on the other. Buttons represent an ideal bridge between the viewer and the artist’s emotional and spiritual world (expressed by the pictorial framework underneath); a bridge between our material perception of reality and its genuine and deepest meaning.

FRANCESCO BOSCHI