robert pettena

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY ART WORK As I make videos or take photographs, I try to relate to the object in front of me or rather I am interested in the outward appearance of the object and how it interracts with the space surrounding it. The inside of an object often has a different meaning from the outside. I am fascinated by the almost total absence of dialogue between the outside and the inside of objects, they can be so different as to represent the complete opposite of the same thing, but still fitting together perfectly within the one object. My work focusses on the internal and the external aspect of objects, making them visible. The external aspect of each installation is like it's shell, you can see it but at the same time it acts as a container for unfamiliar elements. In this case the contents of the container are as visible as the container itself, so the apparent distiction between internal and external dissolves, creating a form of communication between the two elements. Normally we can't see inside objects, so this relationship between the internal and the external aspect of things is not brought to our attention. This applies to us too, we think we know how we appear to others,whereas often we give a completely different impression. Our external appearance does not mirror what is inside us, so the way we think we appear and the way we actually appear is not the same, and we don't quite understand why this is. Communication between these two aspects of ourselves is not perfect, so other people's reactions often surprise us,causing us to reassess. I am interested in the contrast between these opposing elements of the same thing; my work recreates the sensations they bring about and puts them on "ring" , in a thought-provoking way. The movements of our own body reveal our surrounding spaces also giving the body the possibility of finding refuge. Thus our very existence is the establishment of a dialogue with our setting. The unveiling of that which connects our existence with the solid body accentuates the confrontation between life and death. The eye registers data, navigates in an attempt to give visibility to contingent phenomena and to foresee possible physical and censorial connections with space. The video camera is an instrument which records in order to capture latent postures. Corporeal material which has been extracted is able to survive through the image projected on objects, receptacles uneasy with housing images. So dialogue becomes necessary, the virtually animated image rests in the areas which are free, hostile spaces. Violence, the unwillingness to want to live in the new spaces, drags the images into areas which would otherwise be avoided and are therefore unknown. The covers which envelope the suspended images in their incessant uncoordinated being, deviate from the end, the termination of the natural cycle; thus the object can become the shell, the place where the image survives. Nearing ourselves to the languages relative to death, attempting to brush closely with the consequences, doesn't necessarily have to be uncomfortable. It is the very isolation produced by western cultural attitudes which suffocate the universal voices contained in vast areas of richness where contradictions are founded, creating ludic architecture and new areas of research. The temporal aspect is eliminated in the installation, because the action is reiterated until it provokes a dilation between space and time, such that it tends towards the infinite. Robert Pettena Florence, 2002