Materially Speaking

• Alex Seton: Things you argue about over dinner

  See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.comRenowned sculptor Alex Seton tells us about his journey from a rural Australian upbringing to becoming a prominent artist known for politically charged marble works. He speaks about how he became fascinated with marble at a very early age, and how he was influenced by his unconventional upbringing near an historic quarry.His family spent his childhood in the Australian bush with no electricity, a sawdust toilet and no hot water. He and his three brothers studied in a small local Catholic school. Alex and Sarah met in the studios of Massimo Galleni, which has been his studio in Pietrasanta for the last 15 years, where he was finishing up The Tenderness Series. We learn how his passion for social change inspires his work and leads him to use his art to explore themes of social engagement, privacy, and identity. Alex tells about a work he did for a sculpture competition in a hotel, which caused a visceral response from viewers - revealing those who had empathy for the homeless and those who reviled them. The piece is called Unsettled. Alex’s first shows included an installation where the gallery had their leather-topped benches replaced by marble versions, which all had bum prints in the marble. So when the visitor came into an empty gallery they would think “what am I looking at?”.Alex became well known for his series of cross-legged, hooded figures with hollowed out faces from 2012, which he presented at the Hong Kong Fair, just before it became Art Basel. The hoodie seemed to him an egalitarian garment - worn as readily by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and by Martin Trayvon, the young man shot dead in Florida. Alex explains he can get obsessed with fashion items.Alex did a series of works during the pandemic, one of which one touched Sarah deeply. Proposal for a Humble Monument was inspired by how, in a place called Bathurst, convicts used to hack away and pull out big blocks of lime. Alex considered all the monuments around the world being pulled down because they reflect our shameful colonial past, and wondered what we might replace them with. He decided something more humble would be appropriate, and so the Proposal For a Humble Monument was named to honour the pain of those miners.Alex tells us how he came to name the piece Someone Died Trying To Have a Life Like Mine (2014) which pays respects to the many refugees whose lives were lost at sea trying to reach a better life.alexseton.cominstagram.com/alexseton_Massimo Galleni Studios, gallenimassimo.itSullivan + Strumpf Gallery, sullivanstrumpf.com

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• Emanuele Giannelli: Noi bipedi siamo creature straordinarie (We bipeds are amazing creatures)

  See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.comQuesto episodio continua anche il nostro desiderio di produrre un episodio per stagione in italiano.In keeping with our desire to produce one episode per season in Italian.Inoltre, ora avete la possibilità di guardare questo episodio come video o semplicemente ascoltare l'audio.In addition, you now have the option to watch this episode as a video below or on YouTube, with English subtitles, or simply listen to the audio, in Italian only.Nato a Roma, ma ora residente in Versilia, Giannelli è probabilmente famoso soprattutto per la sua gigantesca scultura Mr Arbitrium, alta oltre cinque metri, che sembra spingere via o sostenere gli edifici contro cui è appoggiata, a seconda del punto di vista dello spettatore.  Born in Rome, but now living in Versilia, Giannelli is probably best known for his giant sculpture, Mr Arbitrium, over five metres tall, which appears to be either pushing away or supporting the buildings it stands against - depending on the viewers’ point of view.  Questa ambiguità trasforma noi spettatori in protagonisti, mettendo in discussione le nostre convinzioni sul significato di queste strutture e sul nostro legame con esse. Diverse versioni di Mr Arbitrium sono state installate su edifici e chiese a Milano, Firenze, Lucca, Servezza, Carrara, Pietrasanta e persino in Ucraina.This ambiguity turns us as viewers into the protagonists, challenging our beliefs about the meaning of these structures and our connection to them. Versions of Mister Arbitrium have been installed against buildings and churches in Milan, Florence, Lucca, Servezza, Carrara, Pietrasanta and even Ukraine.Giannelli accoglie Mike sul prato della tenuta di famiglia, dove la sua serie di sculture in bronzo I Sospesi è appesa agli alberi e un simpatico labrador nero giace sull'erba.  Giannelli welcomes Mike on the lawn of the family estate, where his series of bronze sculptures I Sospesi hang from the trees, and a friendly black labrador lies on the grass. Emanuele è arrivato a Carrara a diciannove anni per studiare scultura all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, stabilendosi qui in Versilia, dove la sua famiglia aveva vissuto nelle generazioni precedenti. All'Accademia ha scelto di lavorare l'argilla piuttosto che il marmo, per la flessibilità che offre e per la natura più concettuale del suo lavoro. Emanuele came to Carrara at nineteen to study sculpture at the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts, settling here in Versilia, where his family had lived in previous generations. At the Academy he chose to work in clay rather than marble, due to the flexibility it offers and the nature of his work being more conceptual.Giannelli racconta a Mike di come, in gioventù, abbia trascorso del tempo a New York, Londra e Berlino, subendo l'influenza della fantascienza, del cinema, dei graffiti, della musica elettronica e del punk rock. Alla fine è tornato a Pietrasanta, luogo più adatto per crescere una famiglia.Giannelli tells Mike how in his youth he spent time in New York, London and Berlin and was influenced by science fiction, cinema, graffiti, electronic music, and punk rock. Eventually he returned to Pietrasanta which was more conducive to raising a family.Ricorda la gioia di incontrare artigiani e visitare i laboratori che allora si trovavano nel centro di Pietrasanta. E gli piacevano anche le feste e la vita sociale con tanti giovani, soprattutto stranieri, tedeschi, francesi e americani.He recalls the joy of meeting artisans and visiting the workshops which were then in the centre of Pietrasanta. And he also enjoyed the parties and social life with lots of young people, especially foreigners, Germans, French, and Americans.The Watcher è una scultura che osserva il cielo con binocoli, cosa che gli esseri umani hanno sempre fatto. Tuttavia, ora, grazie alla tecnologia, sta cercando di guardare oltre. Emanuele afferma che “oltre” gli fa pensare anche alla spiritualità. The Watcher is a sculpture who looks up with binoculars at the sky, which is something humans have always done. However now, through technology, he is trying to look beyond. Emanuele says that ‘beyond’ also makes him think of spirituality.Un'altra opera che cita con un tema visionario è Korf, un uomo che sta in piedi davanti al suo monitor, con le braccia incrociate, lo sguardo rivolto verso l'alto, alla ricerca della sua visione e del suo futuro.Another work he mentions with a visionary theme is Korf, a man who stands watching on his monitor, arms crossed, gaze turned upwards, searching for his vision and his future.Emanuele afferma che, pur non credendo in un codice chiamato religione, crede molto negli esseri umani. Dice che, sebbene siamo animali e abbiamo un senso di autodistruzione, siamo animali straordinari. Le sue opere si collocano tra il figurativo e il concettuale, riflettendo sul periodo contemporaneo caratterizzato da cambiamenti incredibilmente rapidi. Emanuele says although he doesn't believe in a code called religion, he believes very much in human beings. He says that although we are animals, and have a sense of self-destruction, we are extraordinary animals. His works are pitched between figurative and conceptual, reflecting on the contemporary period of incredibly fast-moving change.emanuelegiannelli.itinstagram.com/emanuele.giannelli

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• Maja Thommen: Spiral

  See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.comOriginally from Zurich, Maja was always keen to leave Switzerland and with an Italian grandmother perhaps Italy was always going to be her destination. She moved to Italy in 1991.She speaks to us about how her approach to work has changed. When she was young she liked seeing the impression her hands made on the work, while now she seeks smoothness and perfection.We meet Maja at her home - Artists Hill - an old farmhouse, surrounded by olive groves and a huge vegetable garden, which she has renovated into a home, studios, and a part that she rents out.First Maja shows us the room where she draws, and then we move over to her new modelling studio, opposite the house.In the middle of this room, towering above her, is a spiral column. It’s a plastercast - soon to be realised in acrylic resin and earth.Maja tells us about a bas relief project in 16 panels called dressing. The question she originally posed was, “Can we change religion like clothes or is religion something inherent to us, you know, is it like part of us?"One of Maja’s first pieces was Extension of Ego and now it takes pride of place in her studio. Maja still loves it and it represents the theme she still develops of externalising human traits in her work.Labrynth is another of Maja’s pieces that follows the theme of a body’s outside reflecting what is inside.majathommen.chinstagram.com/thommenmaja

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• Ursula Corsi: Mosaici (lingua italiana)

  Guarda le foto e leggi di più su materiallyspeaking.comUrsula è nata a Seravezza e vive e lavora ancora nella zona di Pietrasanta e ha anche trascorso un periodo di apprendimento delle tecniche speciali di mosaico di Ravenna e Spilimbergo.Facciamo un giro nel suo studio e tra le sue numerose scatole di tessere.Quando le chiediamo quanto sia importante la luce nella composizione di un mosaico, Ursula ci spiega che una delle prime cose che fa quando accetta un incarico è vedere dove verrà collocato il mosaico.Le sue commissioni la portano in tutto il mondo e, quando l'abbiamo incontrata, era appena tornata da un lavoro a Filadelfia, negli Stati Uniti.Ursula ci racconta della sua formazione e di alcuni dei progetti speciali a cui ha lavorato, compreso il primo, per una sinagoga.Vedere i suoi lavori su Facebook “mosaici Ursula Corsi”facebook.com/mosaiciursulacorsiinstagram.com/mosaiciursulacorsiEnglish translationSee pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.comUrsula was born in Seravezza and still lives and works in the Pietrasanta area and also spent a period learning the special mosaic techniques of Ravenna and Spilimbergo.However, her commissions take her all over the world and when we met her, she had just returned from a job in Philadelphia, USA.Ursula tells us about her education and some of the special projects she has worked on, including her first one, for a synagogue.Let's take a tour of his studio and his many boxes of tiles.When we ask her how important light is in the composition of a mosaic, Ursula explains that one of the first things she does when she accepts a commission is to see where the mosaic will be placed.

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• Anne-Claire van den Elshout: Icarus

  See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.comDutch artist Anne-Claire trained and worked as a lawyer until she followed her heart to become an artist. She moved to Pietrasanta, where she lived, and worked, for 15 years. Now she divides her time between the Hague and Pietrasanta.After the pandemic she was looking for a way to capture peoples’ thoughts and emotions in order to make a three-dimensional sculpture of them in clay. Having discovered that a traditional scanner was unable to grab the emotion she saw in a split second, Anne-Claire was happy to meet Claudio Giustiniani of ArtaxLab in Pietrasanta, who showed her how he used 30 Nikon cameras in conjunction with a 3-D printer. Working with Claudio she could get what she wanted and began her project to capture the emotions around the experience of COVID-19 called My Collection of Souls.To create her My Collection of Souls Anne-Claire talked to the person about COVID-19 and, at the exact moment she saw their strongest expression, she pressed the button on the cameras. Claudio and she discuss in this episode how they created the work - from taking the photograph through to the finished collection.Another collaboration Anne-Claire made was with photographer Gail Skoff.Gail came to this part of Italy in 2017 to photograph the quarries of Carrara but soon became fascinated by the artists working in marble. When she met Anne-Claire they instantly clicked, and embarked on a collaboration with Gail’s photographic collage technique. Gail likes to enter the world of the artist and elaborate on their process, creating more of an impression of the artist's work rather than its ultimate reality.Anne-Claire tells us how it was working with Gail and how happy she was to have Icarus flying.From her childhood, Anne-Claire was inspired by how Michelangelo expressed such soft emotions in hard marble. Below is a piece in tribute to him. Anne-Claire thought David’s victory over Goliath was an excellent metaphor for our battle and the optimism needed to succeed during COVID-19.anneclaire.nlinstagram.com/anneclairevandenelshoutArtAxlab aims to build a bridge between the artisan world and digital technologiesartaxlab.cominstagram.com/artaxlab

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