TANGIBLE SHADOWS IN A SHADE COLOUR
Pulsating, carnal and manifest symbiotic patterns intersect to evoke a visceral vision recalling a pure introspective symbology. But it is not enough. The microscopic size together with every detailed bend make that the microcosm become the real topic. Well, in a certain sense that is true. The extraordinary human ability of finding simple languages in an increasingly complex significance underlines the natural inclination of the author to release his own pre-language; it is something like depicting the (perceptible) unconscious glimmer of his ego. But symbology is not only characterized by a microcosm; indeed, here and there the work suggests a common denominator: a methodic, instinctive and clean language; I dare say a quite linear language, if considered macroscopically.
The colours contrast with the sensory pattern of the “pulsating meaning” and symbolize an emotivity, often represented by changing different colours: the red symbolizing pain, the blue symbolizing calmness but also immobility and the yellow symbolizing the change. The black rarely has a sinister aspect; even so it stands out also when it is not so dark. The purple is unusual but powerful, when used. We can easily recognize a typical feature characterizing every canvas; it allegorically represents a personal grow: every work is like a mirror working as a sort of author’s diary.
Soma works symbolize specific personal changes or pain. Here the substance is “broken” and “melted”, while sometimes it disappears as if interrupted by a quiet oblivion. No doubt, among the most “visceral” feature, the most evident one is the representation of the colon: the picture is uneven and unified at the same time, as a sort of rejection-impression of one’s feeling. Moreover, there is also a cell vision in which the microcosm is symbolized by its own pattern, representing the truth and its “consequences”. That is the main feature of the work and creates a sort of endless sensory process, an imperfect and not volatile universe. The vision of the “flesh” is emphasized by the presence of the colon, with which the author evidences his sexuality, following his sudden inspiration. Paradoxically, the lack of an elaborated language is not a limit, since it obliges the human eye to recall purely instinctive thoughts that are totally detached from the interpretative language, thus allowing an increasingly subjective interpretation. Sometimes it is difficult to decide if a certain picture is static or not; it is as if the image conveys a sense of “quite” chaos and “pure” chaos at the same time.
You easily change your mind about the emotions that a picture stirs up but the eye is more centered on the author’s intentions, as he reveals himself to be observed in his wholeness. In respect of this, his great artistic exhibitionism persuaded him to create some magnifying lens on his own essence-viscera.
Finally, I think that it is a noteworthy and original work. No doubt, the author is increasingly developing his idea and if he keeps on as if he began, I am sure his introspective, visceral, pulsating “bodies of art” will “dig” into the artist‘s essence deeper and deeper.
By Saverio Comparini
Pulsating, carnal and manifest symbiotic patterns intersect to evoke a visceral vision recalling a pure introspective symbology. But it is not enough. The microscopic size together with every detailed bend make that the microcosm become the real topic. Well, in a certain sense that is true. The extraordinary human ability of finding simple languages in an increasingly complex significance underlines the natural inclination of the author to release his own pre-language; it is something like depicting the (perceptible) unconscious glimmer of his ego. But symbology is not only characterized by a microcosm; indeed, here and there the work suggests a common denominator: a methodic, instinctive and clean language; I dare say a quite linear language, if considered macroscopically.
The colours contrast with the sensory pattern of the “pulsating meaning” and symbolize an emotivity, often represented by changing different colours: the red symbolizing pain, the blue symbolizing calmness but also immobility and the yellow symbolizing the change. The black rarely has a sinister aspect; even so it stands out also when it is not so dark. The purple is unusual but powerful, when used. We can easily recognize a typical feature characterizing every canvas; it allegorically represents a personal grow: every work is like a mirror working as a sort of author’s diary.
Soma works symbolize specific personal changes or pain. Here the substance is “broken” and “melted”, while sometimes it disappears as if interrupted by a quiet oblivion. No doubt, among the most “visceral” feature, the most evident one is the representation of the colon: the picture is uneven and unified at the same time, as a sort of rejection-impression of one’s feeling. Moreover, there is also a cell vision in which the microcosm is symbolized by its own pattern, representing the truth and its “consequences”. That is the main feature of the work and creates a sort of endless sensory process, an imperfect and not volatile universe. The vision of the “flesh” is emphasized by the presence of the colon, with which the author evidences his sexuality, following his sudden inspiration. Paradoxically, the lack of an elaborated language is not a limit, since it obliges the human eye to recall purely instinctive thoughts that are totally detached from the interpretative language, thus allowing an increasingly subjective interpretation. Sometimes it is difficult to decide if a certain picture is static or not; it is as if the image conveys a sense of “quite” chaos and “pure” chaos at the same time.
You easily change your mind about the emotions that a picture stirs up but the eye is more centered on the author’s intentions, as he reveals himself to be observed in his wholeness. In respect of this, his great artistic exhibitionism persuaded him to create some magnifying lens on his own essence-viscera.
Finally, I think that it is a noteworthy and original work. No doubt, the author is increasingly developing his idea and if he keeps on as if he began, I am sure his introspective, visceral, pulsating “bodies of art” will “dig” into the artist‘s essence deeper and deeper.
By Saverio Comparini
MARK and ENERGY
Focus on it to be inspired. Feel it and follow that primordial human trace. Withdraw into it to escape the color shade. Finally draw your mark.
That is how Bonifacio Castello captures his mark; he follows those feelings flowing in our mind like pieces of a past reality that still exists in our imagination, like a phantom.
An authentic surrealism recalls the scented drops of Mirò, together with the expressionist cries, hidden in the wind. His references to these marks are so evident to make us wonder about the origin of his art. But as many commas come out the word, here we are where the vowel doesn’t exist.
Starting from the beginning equals to originate it; Bonifacio, after releasing every preexistent pattern, enriched his mind with features belonging to the past, thus linking them with the modern society. Bonifacio Castello helps us to understand how the substance is shaped by the time, which spoils our skin, thus underlying its precariousness. The rain soaks, the fire burns, the wind dries and the human being gets old. So what could we do? We can appeal to substance; the substance of nature, of the biological cycle; the real nature of substance, representing the leading topic in the artist’s hands.
In 1996, Bonifacio got the diploma in the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and he is now studying history of art to become Bachelor of Arts. Moreover, he keeps on his anthropomorphic study, in a world permeated with the chaos of an inner guerrilla. The artist is now preparing his degree thesis about Sebastian Matta. Bonfacio tells me he is interested in what is essential and invisible to the human eye. Matta himself talked about an underground world of substance, a world examined under the microscope with atoms and molecules. No doubt, Bonifacio started exactly from that point.
The artist often talked to me about his native town, Matera, as a very ancient place filled with mysticism. A place characterized by hollows, cavities, caves and darkness. Well, those who have never admired the town of Sassi should know that it is very ancient. Its territory witnesses many human settlements dating back to the Paleolithic. In the caves, scattered along the ravines of Matera, a lot of objects belonging to the Paleolithic were unearthed. (I wonder if Castello depicted one of them in his works!) During the Iron Age the first settlement emerged on the right bank of the Gravina; it corresponds to the modern Civita area. I think that Bonifacio is a good interpreter of the history of Matera. It is no accident that his work involves recycling materials, geometric figures and punched material. Moreover, the artist doesn’t think only of himself; indeed, he is also sensitive to the world surrounding him. It is important for me to underline it, because we rarely find committed-artists and when I met Bonifacio for the first time I understood he was one of them. Indeed, Castello besides devoting to his artistic inspiration, takes care of troubles children in a reception center. So I believe that in many of his light and shade effects, rich in silvery nuances, we recognize those dreadful and sorrowful cries. That is the reality, but sometimes we would like to forget it, although it is part of our society. So if some artist tries to find a sort of salvation, his effort must be rewarded. Bonifacio Castello was born in 1973. In 1988, he took part in a pictorial exhibition of Miglionico, The landscape of Lucania. In 1988, the exhibition My Land, in Aliano, took him up again. At last, in 1994 Bonifacio participated in an exhibition of many young European artists about the portrait and its interpretation, in Florence. In 1996 the artist came back home as founder of the Land-art project: the Beauty is inside. A surface of one thousand three hundred square maters was ready to be packed but without the help of helicopters, as Christo and Jeanne-Claude did. His staff armed itself with Spanbon to cover the floor of the rock-hewn churches of St. Maria de Idris and St. Giovanni in Monterrone.
But it is not enough. In 2007, Bonifacio Castello organized his own digital photography exhibition Erotic Oneiric, in the Dolce Vita in Florence, after a telephone call by Tinto Brass. In the same year the artist went to Rome to take part in a pictorial and graphic exhibition, Energy in motion with the Laboratorio Emozionale.
As we can see, his activity is very varied, vigorous and it involves a wide range of different materials including oil painting, enamel paint, turpentine, clay and everything is produced by nature. At the moment Bonifacio keeps on his work between Tuscany and Basilicata and we will hear about him very soon. We will probably hear about a new exhibition, or maybe a new study about the mark, or finally about his cooperation with art galleries. Right now I can’t tell more than this. We can just wait for it.
by Sara Janni
Focus on it to be inspired. Feel it and follow that primordial human trace. Withdraw into it to escape the color shade. Finally draw your mark.
That is how Bonifacio Castello captures his mark; he follows those feelings flowing in our mind like pieces of a past reality that still exists in our imagination, like a phantom.
An authentic surrealism recalls the scented drops of Mirò, together with the expressionist cries, hidden in the wind. His references to these marks are so evident to make us wonder about the origin of his art. But as many commas come out the word, here we are where the vowel doesn’t exist.
Starting from the beginning equals to originate it; Bonifacio, after releasing every preexistent pattern, enriched his mind with features belonging to the past, thus linking them with the modern society. Bonifacio Castello helps us to understand how the substance is shaped by the time, which spoils our skin, thus underlying its precariousness. The rain soaks, the fire burns, the wind dries and the human being gets old. So what could we do? We can appeal to substance; the substance of nature, of the biological cycle; the real nature of substance, representing the leading topic in the artist’s hands.
In 1996, Bonifacio got the diploma in the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and he is now studying history of art to become Bachelor of Arts. Moreover, he keeps on his anthropomorphic study, in a world permeated with the chaos of an inner guerrilla. The artist is now preparing his degree thesis about Sebastian Matta. Bonfacio tells me he is interested in what is essential and invisible to the human eye. Matta himself talked about an underground world of substance, a world examined under the microscope with atoms and molecules. No doubt, Bonifacio started exactly from that point.
The artist often talked to me about his native town, Matera, as a very ancient place filled with mysticism. A place characterized by hollows, cavities, caves and darkness. Well, those who have never admired the town of Sassi should know that it is very ancient. Its territory witnesses many human settlements dating back to the Paleolithic. In the caves, scattered along the ravines of Matera, a lot of objects belonging to the Paleolithic were unearthed. (I wonder if Castello depicted one of them in his works!) During the Iron Age the first settlement emerged on the right bank of the Gravina; it corresponds to the modern Civita area. I think that Bonifacio is a good interpreter of the history of Matera. It is no accident that his work involves recycling materials, geometric figures and punched material. Moreover, the artist doesn’t think only of himself; indeed, he is also sensitive to the world surrounding him. It is important for me to underline it, because we rarely find committed-artists and when I met Bonifacio for the first time I understood he was one of them. Indeed, Castello besides devoting to his artistic inspiration, takes care of troubles children in a reception center. So I believe that in many of his light and shade effects, rich in silvery nuances, we recognize those dreadful and sorrowful cries. That is the reality, but sometimes we would like to forget it, although it is part of our society. So if some artist tries to find a sort of salvation, his effort must be rewarded. Bonifacio Castello was born in 1973. In 1988, he took part in a pictorial exhibition of Miglionico, The landscape of Lucania. In 1988, the exhibition My Land, in Aliano, took him up again. At last, in 1994 Bonifacio participated in an exhibition of many young European artists about the portrait and its interpretation, in Florence. In 1996 the artist came back home as founder of the Land-art project: the Beauty is inside. A surface of one thousand three hundred square maters was ready to be packed but without the help of helicopters, as Christo and Jeanne-Claude did. His staff armed itself with Spanbon to cover the floor of the rock-hewn churches of St. Maria de Idris and St. Giovanni in Monterrone.
But it is not enough. In 2007, Bonifacio Castello organized his own digital photography exhibition Erotic Oneiric, in the Dolce Vita in Florence, after a telephone call by Tinto Brass. In the same year the artist went to Rome to take part in a pictorial and graphic exhibition, Energy in motion with the Laboratorio Emozionale.
As we can see, his activity is very varied, vigorous and it involves a wide range of different materials including oil painting, enamel paint, turpentine, clay and everything is produced by nature. At the moment Bonifacio keeps on his work between Tuscany and Basilicata and we will hear about him very soon. We will probably hear about a new exhibition, or maybe a new study about the mark, or finally about his cooperation with art galleries. Right now I can’t tell more than this. We can just wait for it.
by Sara Janni