Walter Rindone (IT)
Text written by GHA
Walter Rindone is an Italian visual artist who experiments with various printmaking techniques. In his powerful black and white lithographs he uses anastatic printing, which is also known as gum printing or paper lithography and watercolour. He adresses environmental issues and questions today’s political power dynamics.
Walter’s contemporary aesthetic is a product of recycled images and is suggestive of a rebranded renaissance. He has manipulated images that symbolise pop culture; Jeff Koons’ balloon dog was created to endorse mainstream art, meanwhile Donald Trump holding a gun went viral throughout all kinds of social media platforms.
A repetitive pattern of multiple naked bodies right next to a variety of elements construct a conundrum.
All the characters are actively engaging into different types of actions within the overcrowded compositions. Wild animals that interact with humans are an arbitrary touch to the pictures which makes one think; humans deviated from their animalistic and wild side, only to establish a corrupted hierarchical system.
Dark shades of similar value suggest a lack of light. Grim and lurid skies; no sun to shine upon the refugees wearing life vests – some of the few subjects that are tinted with colour. The artworks imitate their reality in the Mediterranean sea. Swimming amongst our garbage and our apathy, trying to survive through all the man made problems we’ve burdened ourselves with.
Imposing, either bigger in size or tinted elements contrast the humans in crisis and the environmental pollution. The artist seems to question the value of human life in the modern world. ‘The Tide’ is a title which could be translated as a sign of bad omen. A relentless tide that’s approaching with rapid force towards us; almost as a punishment for our inhumane actions.
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The Tide Nr.4 The Tide Nr.7
