LEMON IN MY EYES // GIADA FIORINDI + FEDERICO FLORIANI
TALES OF LO-RES FEELINGS, CRYSTAL FLOWERS & BAROQUE FEATURES
July 1st - September 3rd 2017
Lemon In My Eyes by Giada Fiorindi and Federico Floriani.
Tales of lo-res feelings, crystal flowers & baroque features.
Location: Veniceinabottle, Via Garibaldi 1794, Castello 30122, Venice. Google maps link.
Opening hours: 11:00 - 19:00, closed on Mondays.
VeniceArtFactory and Ongaro e Fuga present Lemon In My Eyes. In the exhibition, the Venetian mirror is reinterpreted through a languid and kitschy installation. Artefacts with traditionally romantic and dainty aesthetics are placed within a contemporary frame, twisting their original meanings. The narrative embraces new visual languages to speak about feelings in the Internet age, emotional objects and decoration as therapeutic elements.
Sexy manga girls take the place of angelic muses and cynically comment on stories of decadence in their cartoon bubbles. They lament the contradictions and decline now shaping society. These damsels were once elegant deities celebrating the climax of earthly and spiritual beauty. By now they are skeptical mermaids and sibyls from the Internet who, careless, no longer seduce their lost sailors.
Floating among fluffy clouds, the beautiful ladies tell stories in under 140 characters. The ironic words are forever engraved in a 17th-century mirror, rather than disappearing in an infinite scroll of tweets. The new nymphs sing lyrics evoking undefined futures, present insecurities and pathetic nostalgia. Ruffles of sexual and melancholic cliches surround them; gaudy artificial flowers and glaze drops slowly melt, a childish novelty. The beauties lie on a bed of roses and vapour limbo choosing drama. The Venetian mirrors embrace emotional and decorative exuberance inviting the observers to be reflected among visual opulence and sarcasm.
The Japanese figures belong to a time of emotional distress embodied in the age of the Internet. The online system already acts as a sentimental retreat—keeping a detailed memoir of everyone’s lives, collecting emoji flowers on Facebook memorial pages, and publishing conscious admissions of psychological disorders in public is part of an established behaviour. It is clear that the contemporary society is in need of an emotional recovery.
Bringing back a redundancy of detail and aesthetic sublimation from other epochs creates a sensory bridge for lost users. The Baroque nostalgia remains as emotional liberation in both a physical and digital reality. Exoticism, decorative caprices and anti-modernist coats of slush return as fetish from the past and new therapy against a constrictive and weakening system. Let’s treat the digital hypochondria with crystalline surrogates of petals and curled motifs. Cry pearls and sweat glass drops. Crystallise disappointment, embellish the critique.
This project has been realised with the collaboration of Ongaro e Fuga and VeniceArtFactory.
