Fulvio Di Piazza creates whimsical paintings of humanized landscapes with an extraordinary level of detail and depth. In the “Ashes to Ashes” series, the artist’s work showcases dramatic fiery volcanic images. Twisted lines grow through clouds of soot and smoke in the form of mushrooms, with faces made up of burnt ruins. Their bodies, as vulnerable and combustible as fires, and their smoldering peaks, loom in the distance with blazing ash and glowing embers, like lava flows from black soot-covered craters, like the hot blood of the Earth.
The artist was inspired to create this series by the 1980 book Entropy by an American economist named Jeremy Rifkin, in which he links thermodynamic activity to sociological patterns of economic and environmental decline. Although the author was widely criticized for misunderstanding the laws of physics, di Piazza was interested in conceptual parallels, regardless of the lack of scientific justification.
There is a certain pessimism in the images of this exhibition, but still the artist finds hope in gloomy theorism. This matter is indestructible due to its ever-changing nature, the constant movement and transformation of different types of energy. He also points to an interesting dichotomy of ash. Being the remnants of matter consumed by fire, it also symbolizes the beginning of a new cycle. This interpretation shows the potential for renewal and something new. Once this world burns down, perhaps it will become a Phoenix and rise from the ashes.
To continue, visit a selection of oil photographs by Michel del Campo.