Amidst the sea of life
by Claudia Zanfi
The Breath of Sky (Il respiro del Cielo), by Rossella Pezzino de Geronimo, is a series of photographs that describe visual and sensory correspondences between apparently distant worlds. Although the things of this world are ephemeral and impermanent, they are also real just as they are. Matter and void are two sides of the same coin. In the photographer’s works, shape and colour are inextricably linked and are both equally intangible. This is true of the perception of a rock, a hill, the wind, or a landscape.
Colour, in its intangible essence, and the dream-like images deriving from an intimate vision – or those emerging from the assonance experienced while meandering through nature – are transformed into works of art, storytelling, matter. The photographer reflects on the ways in which a work is created, choosing the dream-like and poetic state of the world as her instrument. From directly observing reality, she switches to the abstraction of detail, a condensation, a more dream-like display, a vision portrayed in photography. A landscape fragment becomes a work in itself, providing an in-depth interpretation of the artistic experience. For the photographer, revisiting the world takes on a minor, purely photographic importance, choosing instead to recompose the ‘frame’ through detail.
The vertical axis, which in some photographs cuts the horizontal axis perpendicularly, merges with colour, thus confusing the planes; confusing what’s real with what’s abstract. Verticality and horizontality become axioms imbued with new values: they are the degree zero of creative expression, a state of unconditional hiatus, the concatenation of semantic memory. The onlooker ventures into a new language, into a heterogeneous state, jumping from the margins into the centre of the image.
In her works, Rossella Pezzino de Geronimo sets out to trigger emotional engagement; the individual becomes complete through the sharing of emotions, achieving harmony and aesthetic wholeness. Rossella’s images are made up of glittering peaks. A passageway for our eyes in the reflection of the sun. A passageway for our souls in the solitude of a hiatus. Unique. Absolute. Amidst daily chaos. Amidst the sea of life.