Pneuma, features sculptures arranged in the cultivated Iris field and explores the classical Greek elements: earth, water, fire, and air.
First created in 2019, Pneuma uses the element of air and the balloon as a structure for sculpture. The pouring of gypsum shapes matter from solid to liquid and back to solid. The use of wax and ash, the mutation of the liquid state hot in the cold, transforms the act of painting into layered material painting. The cast of daily objects, like the balloon, implies presence and absence, and it is the starting point of the work, a moment of poetic wonder and contemplation of origin.
Air is the living movement that enters and leaves the body-mind revealing the structure of the dual visible phenomena. Outside and inside are inseparable and one.
Pneuma, that is, that you breathe or blow. The term has multiple views in ancient Greece. For Anaximenes, pre-Socratic, the element of air represents the Soul and is the element from which all the rest originated. In Greek medicine, "The pneuma, inhaled from the outside air, rushes through the arteries until it reaches the various centers, particularly the brain, and heart, and there it provokes thought and organic movement'“. For Aristotle, there is a relationship between pneuma and seed, transmitting pneuma through the seed. The Stoics identified the "breath of life" with the "intelligent spirit." In Chinese philosophy, the element air represents the Qi, the life force that forms all living beings. In Indian medicine, Prana, or breath, means life principle.
The element of air mythologically represents the Soul. Holding back the airflow connotes blocking this aspect of conscience or essence.
BibliografiaJean Fautrier, Nineteenth century painterPneuma, www.encyclopedia.comTao Te Ching, Lao TzuCarlo Rovelli, The order of timeCorrado Malanga, www.corradomalangaexperience.com