Bonds XVII advances the Bonds [Legami] series toward an increasingly distilled articulation of form. The vertically aligned ceramic elements appear lighter and more exposed, their pale surface registering subtle shifts of texture, relief, and luster. Rather than asserting a unified body, the sculpture reads as a sequence of signals and pauses, inviting the viewer to follow the figure upward as a progression rather than a mass. Presence here is cumulative, built through attention and duration.
Bonds XVII advances the Bonds [Legami] series toward an increasingly distilled articulation of form. The vertically aligned ceramic elements appear lighter and more exposed, their pale surface registering subtle shifts of texture, relief, and luster. Rather than asserting a unified body, the sculpture reads as a sequence of signals and pauses, inviting the viewer to follow the figure upward as a progression rather than a mass. Presence here is cumulative, built through attention and duration.
While the work remains rooted in the Umbrian ceramic tradition and its legacy of symbolic abstraction, Bonds XVII opens a dialogue with modern sculptural practices that privilege reduction and serial structure. The emphasis on repetition and interval recalls aspects of Minimalist logic, yet the tactile irregularities of the surface resist industrial neutrality. In this balance between order and vulnerability, the work resonates with postwar explorations of fragility and persistence found in artists such as Eva Hesse, where structure becomes a site of poetic instability rather than control.
As in Bonds IX, the lower element plays a critical role. Its form departs from the expectation of a stabilizing base, introducing a sense of hesitation that subtly unsettles the figure’s vertical progression. This deviation prevents closure, keeping the sculpture perceptually open and reinforcing the experience of the body as something unfolding rather than fixed.
Within the Bonds series, Bonds XVII explores connection as sequence. Bonds and ties are neither compressed nor dissolved, but spaced, allowing each element to retain its identity while contributing to an overall rhythm. Ligature here becomes temporal rather than structural: a condition that unfolds through continuity of gesture. Crisafi offers a sculpture that rewards sustained looking, reaffirming connection as a process rather than a resolved state.
