Limited Edition of 5
40 x 65.7 in
101.6 x 166.9 cm
US $ 4,600
A decaying wall, its surface softened by time and layered with moss, lichen, and the faded residue of graffiti, yields in this work a presence of unusual delicacy. Muted reds and grays mingle with mossy green and silvery lichen; the overall effect is fresco-like, colors faded to a quiet intensity. The figure that emerges is atmospheric rather than confrontational, as though it had been there a long time and was only just becoming legible to the attentive eye.
A decaying wall, its surface softened by time and layered with moss, lichen, and the faded residue of graffiti, yields in this work a presence of unusual delicacy. Muted reds and grays mingle with mossy green and silvery lichen; the overall effect is fresco-like, colors faded to a quiet intensity. The figure that emerges is atmospheric rather than confrontational, as though it had been there a long time and was only just becoming legible to the attentive eye.
Ragazzini photographs a fragment of the decaying wall, selecting the section where the accumulation of organic and inorganic matter is densest and the chromatic range widest. The mirroring draws out the bilateral structure, and the image is then worked to preserve and deepen the delicacy of the source material: the muted reds and mossy greens are brought to the fresco-like quiet of the finished work through elaboration, not accident.
The surface of this wall achieves through sheer duration what the Expressionist tradition pursued through stylistic intensity: a chromatic complexity that no single act of painting could reach, a density of mark that carries an emotional charge proportional to its resistance to control. The crack and the stain, the moss and the lichen, belong to that tradition's understanding of what a damaged or neglected surface can hold. The face that emerges inherits that complexity.
For a closer look at the making, and the thinking behind the Creature series: What the Eye Finds
