Take, Own, Create

This idea comes from the reading of the famous essay of Susan Sontag, On Photography. There she writes about the way we use photography to take possession of things, moments, memories and people (think about the way tourists are sometimes more concerned of having their photo in front of a momument taken instead of actually living the place where they are, or the way we have photographs of the people we love, like we own them, having their presence always with us).

I thought of bringing this idea to the extreme, through the work of the artist and his creative “power”. In this work the subject (friends, family, people) is forced to assume an unnatural geometric form. The mosaic that forms this image exists only for the moment needed to take a photograph. Then it's destroyed. The artist forbids the reality to assume a proper form, its own form or any form at all, exept for the one that he needs for his work.

The use of geometric forms, an ideal of beauty since ancient times, shows the will of the artist to completely grab and change the reality to create his own idea.

The artist takes a photograph of the reality, and affirms his total “ownership” of it, by forcing and using it to create a new form. (This work is handmade, the pieces are not pasted, they last just for the time of the shot).

Davide Tremolada, 2012.