In Bonds XXIII, Crisafi amplifies the Bonds [Legami] series through scale, surface, and assertive frontal presence. Composed of over life-size ceramic bas-relief elements, the figure confronts the viewer directly, its segmented anatomy unfolding along a strong vertical axis. The vivid orange glaze, activated by splattered luster, transforms the surface into a charged field where relief, incision, and perforation register as physical events. The work reads less as a depiction than as an encounter, its scale pushing the figure into the viewer’s space.
In Bonds XXIII, Crisafi amplifies the Bonds [Legami] series through scale, surface, and assertive frontal presence. Composed of over life-size ceramic bas-relief elements, the figure confronts the viewer directly, its segmented anatomy unfolding along a strong vertical axis. The vivid orange glaze, activated by splattered luster, transforms the surface into a charged field where relief, incision, and perforation register as physical events. The work reads less as a depiction than as an encounter, its scale pushing the figure into the viewer’s space.
The sculpture’s emphasis on frontal monumentality situates it within a lineage of modern art that treats the figure as an emblem rather than a body. The bold reduction and over life-size scale recall the postwar rethinking of the human form in artists such as Eduardo Chillida and early Antony Gormley, where presence is asserted through mass, silhouette, and spatial confrontation rather than narrative detail. At the same time, the activated surface aligns the work with postwar material practices, echoing the legacy of Art Informel in its embrace of gesture, trace, and matter.
Within the Bonds series, Bonds XXIII explores connection as exposure. Bonds and ties are not concealed within structure but staged openly across the surface, visible as points of alignment and interruption. The figure holds together through its frontal insistence and shared chromatic force, transforming ligature into a condition of visibility rather than constraint. Crisafi presents a sculpture that operates at the threshold between object and presence, asserting connection as a public, embodied condition amplified by scale and surface intensity.
