In Bonds VII, Crisafi compresses the human figure into a sequence of emphatically frontal ceramic elements unified by an intense red glaze. The color dominates the work, pushing the sculpture toward a state of heightened presence where surface becomes expressive force. Facial features and bodily signs emerge through incision and relief rather than modeling, producing a figure that reads less as anatomy than as an image impressed into matter, direct and confrontational.
In Bonds VII, Crisafi compresses the human figure into a sequence of emphatically frontal ceramic elements unified by an intense red glaze. The color dominates the work, pushing the sculpture toward a state of heightened presence where surface becomes expressive force. Facial features and bodily signs emerge through incision and relief rather than modeling, producing a figure that reads less as anatomy than as an image impressed into matter, direct and confrontational.
Here, Crisafi’s dialogue with modern Italian sculpture comes to the fore. The saturated glaze and charged surface recall the ceramic works of Leoncillo, where color operates as a carrier of tension and emotional density rather than decoration. At the same time, the refusal of naturalistic continuity aligns the work with Arturo Martini’s pursuit of archetype over likeness, reducing the figure to a symbolic configuration that resists narrative and psychological specificity.
Within the Bonds [Legami] series, Bonds VII emphasizes cohesion through pressure rather than connection. The figure holds itself together not by visible joints or articulated links, but through chromatic intensity and frontal insistence. Bonds here function as internal forces: ties that bind from within rather than attachments between parts. The sculpture stands as a compact, ritual presence, asserting itself through color, material, and form rather than structural display.
