The Greatest Enigma of the Modern Era
Three worksCan we separate who we are from the society that raised us? This series argued that we cannot: our values, tastes and ambitions are products of society, and individual identity is diluted in the identity of everyone else. I still think so. It is the premise of my research.
What has changed is the way out. At the time I looked for a pure, spiritual identity underneath the conditioning, and painted the search as a code to decipher. Today I do not believe there is a self underneath to find. The enigma is not a code to break. It is the condition itself.
Original statement, as written for the series
What really distinguishes one human being from another?
His thoughts, or his behaviours? His values, or what he believes in?
The truth is that removed from the context where a human being was born and raised, little or nothing remains of him.
How, in fact, can we really separate a person's identity from the social and cultural conditioning of the environment where he grew up?
Our values, tastes, expectations and ambitions and beliefs are nothing but the product of societal influences: our individual identity is not, then, really something unique and well-defined, but is diluted in the overall identity of society.
Therefore, in the modern era where social influences are even more amplified by hyperconnectivity, discovering what one's true identity is, the one stripped of all conditioning, is one of the greatest enigmas a person faces in his or her life.
“The Greatest Enigma of the Modern Era” is a project that seeks to expand on the research work on individual identity of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer by integrating the spiritual component, a hallmark of Spiritual Expressionism: if our human identity is too diluted in global identity, then our research should focus on our spiritual identity, which is instead pristine, and which albeit veiled shows fragments of self for those who can pick it up.
The works in the project, chaotic and haphazard in appearance, conceal symbols that, on the contrary, are organized in precise patterns, a metaphor for the fact that even in such a hyper-connected, chaotic world where individual identity merges with global identity, it is still possible to find a connection with one's spiritual identity, deciphering the fragments hidden in the chaos.
Each work is the result of a dual process, arising from the desire to find a way to separate my true identity, the spiritual one, from the global identity.
During the first phase I question aspects of myself that I know are influenced by social and cultural conditioning, with the intention of separating what is part of my true identity from what is not.
The process is not rational, however, but an energetic conversation with my spirit: through ancient esoteric rituals I abandon all rationality and, in a trance-like state, let the answers I seek flow directly onto the canvas, rawly and without any intervention.
Just as the creative act is fueled by spiritual experience, the act of painting the various esoteric symbols also fuels the spiritual experience itself, in a mystical process of growth and transformation.
The second phase is, on the contrary, much more rational: it is through decoding the sacred geometries hidden among the chaotic features of the work that I can make sense of what I experienced during the spiritual experience of painting and, thus, add a piece to solve (my) greatest enigma of the modern era.
This project invites viewers not only to question the foundations of their identity but to embark on their own journey of deciphering the spiritual symbols hidden within the chaos of life, offering a key to understanding their spiritual essence, its connection to the material world, and the path to a freer, more authentic existence.
Three works
All 100 × 100 cm. Select a work to see it full screen.
