A real artist doesn’t need to say he is.
Jokingly, Alessio tells us he doesn’t really know yet if he is. Alessio Guarda is a long-winded, funny, playful young boy who cares a lot about his friends. Basically, he is a self taught artist. Alessio sees art as a dear friend with whom he can be himself and share his secrets. He very often chooses the green color for his works. Green reminds him of home, necessity and oxygen. In a cryptic way, this chromatic choice tends to make clear the common thread of his art: nature. Something that man idealizes and opposes to the city, to artificiality and modernity. Something that celebrates it, but at the same time deviates from it, because he feels safe only at home. An anthropological behavior that, perhaps, only art can interpret at all.
We are made up of two Selves, the outer one and the inner one. I know the outer one well enough, while I have yet to understand where the inner one is hiding.
Hi Alessio, if you had to describe yourself, what would you say?
Hi Alessio, if you had to describe yourself, what would you say?
Hello Dare Clan! Usually, I’m famous among my friends for being a bit long-winded, so I’ll look for a concise answer: usually this is a fairly difficult question to answer and I always leave it to others to describe me. Constantly evolving, I could claim to be many things: “I’m a nice, playful, helpful guy and my Killer heel is to approach girls”. All kidding aside, we are made up of two Selves, the outer one and the inner one. I know the outer one well enough, while I have yet to understand where the inner one is hiding.
When did you begin to perceive yourself as an artist?
I don’t know if I perceive myself as an artist. Surely the first stimulus to the coloristic approach came at an early age, like many others (the walls of my house could tell incredible stories). Let’s say that the awareness of wanting to express myself and my thoughts came with the fateful decision to become an artist after the Middle School post-exam. I had two options: either the forest warden to hunt poachers or art, the rest is history.
The problem is that we are behaving with the same indifference towards nature, but we cannot afford it, because we are the only ones who risk to lose ourselves.
What do you feel while creating?
It depends, sometimes I create because I feel something, sometimes to feel something. Let’s say it is a game for both sides, for sure it is a necessity that I also tried to repress for a while, but in the end I went back to the studio because abstinence was killing me. As for emotions, I can tell you that while I create I can experience moments of extreme happiness and fulfilment as well as moments of unrest and dissatisfaction, very disheartening at times.
Abstractionism is essential in your works where man is at the center. But what is the implicit message of your art?
The message lies in nature itself, both of man and of the natural environment. I like to think of nature as an inhospitable, hybrid place, full of possibilities, indifferent to life, especially to human life. We idealize a comfortable nature because we have found a way to get away from it and visit it every now and then, to escape the system that we ourselves have created, but, in the end, in the evening we always return home where we feel safe. The problem is that we are behaving with the same indifference towards nature, but we cannot afford it, because we are the only ones who risk to lose ourselves
The green color and its different shades are very present in your works, is it a studied choice or a coincidence?
I am the living example of a painter who dispels the saying: “Green sells”. In my life I have sold one, maybe two works in all, and inevitably they weren’t green, or at least not completely (I speak as if I were in my sixties). However, green is a necessity, an almost obvious appropriation of a color that has accompanied my life up to this moment, thanks to the place where I live, where I am constantly in contact with green. I also thank the chlorophyll which absorbs all the colors of light except green and therefore allows us to symbolically associate this color with living nature.
Tell us about your project: “Vivo 2020”
“Vivo” is a work of art created using tanned leather, an element that I started to introduce in my research after several years of working experience as a mechanical maintenance technician in the leather industry (which is very widespread in my area). For the realization of this precise project, I was able to recover the leather that was destined to be wasted because it had finishing errors, therefore not salable. Fortunately, I was able to take two whole pieces, and I can consider myself lucky, because usually the scraps are very small. I wanted to reflect on the meaning of waste, of life and death, trying to bring back to life the animal that was sacrificed for production, making it immortal in memory. The elements of the project are presented in a floating form that recalls the shape of the animal, fluctuating in the air, and emitting a light from within.
Is there an artist you are inspired by in your work?
There have been several artists I stole something from, like every other artist does. Among my great historical loves I can mention Salvador Dalì, Hieronymus Bosch and Marx Ernst, Giuseppe Zigaina and H. R. Giger, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Piranesi and Mark Rothko. Berlinde de Bruyckere, Damien Hirst and many others. Let’s say I don’t have a leading artist, I always try to assimilate what impresses me or interests me from whatever I am in front of.
With the crisis we are experiencing and with many other problems that will come, the future is uncertain and full of possibilities to create something new.
What would you recommend to young students who want to make art their life path?
Get ready to suffer hahaha.
Let’s say that if you feel a need that you cannot suppress, that you cannot hold back, wherever you are or whatever work you are doing to survive, if the thought continues to take you to that point, then maybe it is the right way. Also, always be curious, especially in things completely external to art, know what was done before you and at the same time, look at and read many things, look for your own language. It’s important to show what you think, always question yourself, look for criticism and comparison, and learn the best techniques. There is no pre-established recipe, everyone eventually finds their way. With the crisis we are experiencing and with many other problems that will come, the future is uncertain and full of possibilities to create something new.
You are also a singer, what links painting to music?
Yes, even if I have never studied singing. As in artistic practice, singing is linked to an expressive need. Writing resides in both disciplines, sometimes the lyrics have become songs, sometimes works of art. What brings together the two is the intent. I almost always try to be direct and cryptic at the same time, giving the listener or viewer the possibility to look for their own answer or question.
What is your secret dream?
Of course, I want to be competitive in Age of Empire 2, create fluorescent hens, always have new ideas and be remembered.
To know more about Alessio's work, click here.
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