Art Beyond ImaginationPhotographs by Monica Silva
“Anything I cannot transform into something marvellous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.”
Anaïs Nin
I have known Monica Silva and admired her work since the time of her first monographic exhibition " Life above all " which I wanted and hosted in my gallery in 2008. So when Ruggero and Marco Longari asked me to outline a project that would create a bridge, a dialectic between ancient and contemporary art to open up to new visions and perspectives I immediately thought of her
Unlike the first time, I shared with the artist the long and articulated creative process behind each photo, participating in the entire shoot, observing the 'maniacal attention paid to every single aspect, the search for perfection of the shot that is not just a simple click, but the result of a creativity that leaves nothing to chance and at the same time manages to be free.
Another important peculiarity of his research integrates new linguistic, and technological developments and confrontation with the past through revisiting the ancient in a contemporary key characterized by consistent continuity. An excavation in the art of the past that highlights the assonance at the origin of artistic "making." Its dialogue with ancient art is therefore not a citation, but the expression of the common intention to express, through visual language, those themes that have always been contained in the narratives concerning the human being, where religious, cultural and philosophical syncretisms were and still are a source of existential inquiry.
As already experienced in the cycle "Lux et filum" dedicated to the revisiting of the work of Caravaggio in which Monica Silva translated the art of Merisi in her very personal language, also in "Behind The Scenes", the starting point is ancient works reinterpreted, which here achieves an even more enriching result that lies in the synergistic value that "actualizes" the ancient both through the reinterpretation and also to the possibility of creating a "plastic intervention" made for the 'Angelo Annunziante to which, without altering its structure, the wings are restored using 3D printing technology.
Another aspect, which is not insignificant, that differs Lux et filum from this new project is the cancellation of the temporal and physical distance between ancient and contemporary work. It is a real-time dialogue that instantly breaks down the distance, making visually immediate the connections and even those "misalignments," only seemingly "extraneous," that emphasizes the message closed in the composition of which the work is the bearer and in which nothing is inserted at random.
The cycle on Caravaggio arouses amazement at the effective opulence of the set design that without intention first compels us to try to reconnect with something that is not there-the inspirational work, locked away in a museum-soliciting the memory in whose folds is locked the memory of a masterpiece that in one way or another we have seen live, in publications, or on the Internet. A "find again," a reassuring point of reference that lightens the initial disorientation by helping us take the first step into the artist's mood. We realize that the reinterpretation is yes detectable in the citation of details or poses, but that this is only the surface that once broken, plunges us into Monica Silva's world to discover its colours, lights and hidden messages.
Art for Monica Silva is a means to solicit food for thought, to open us up to a broader, deeper vision of life to question ourselves and enter into the magical wonder that comes from this spirit of inquiry.
This, then, is the intention of Monica Silva's poetics: to discover the unusual and mysterious side hidden behind things, to go beyond the subjective boundaries of human vision where common sense and logic conceal other perspectives that each of us should instead perceive within and beyond the vision of reality.
The message encapsulated in his shots does not rely on the logic of reasoning but on the magic of sensory perception. In this sense, his art succeeds in conveying the deep messages of the human soul by going beyond the limits of verbal language, which is not sufficient to convey the full range of nuances, values and feelings.
For the artist, the camera is like the "third eye" capable of perceiving and making visible a truth, experiencing something new, and managing to bring out, especially in portraits, the difference between who we think we are and who we are.
Various experiences led her to become who she is now: she was a model, then an assistant director in London, which brought her closer to photography when she started filming backstages and her not-so-easy life.
Everything has been poured into her work making her a "contemplative" artist, in the sense that the intent of her art is first and foremost to offer her vision, the 'idea in the service of knowledge, arising from a deep inner, meditative search.
Her work comes to fruition thanks to " maniacal" planning developed on multiple levels that manage to best capture what she portrays, bringing out aspects impossible to see with the naked eye, thus offering us an image that communicates something profound.
Photography is not a minor art, it is a complex creative journey in which mastery of the medium is enriched by the "psychological depth" without which it would be impossible to achieve unprecedented expectations, an existential poetics that can transcend space and time. It is an investigation of reality that seeks to capture its derived emotional intensity. The photo then becomes a means of introspection in which the study of light, environment, and composition become fundamental in their symbolic value. Everything must be adherent to the creative intention which, enclosed in a narrative, must succeed in moving and making people reflect.
For Monica Silva, every action must have a meaning and the means to experience it is her art in which she puts all of herself to succeed in representing her earthly "passage" in the best possible way, leaving a trace of it.
Her intention is the search for the beauty existing in everything, its perfection and meaning.
Maintaining beauty is not an easy thing, rigor, and effort are needed, and it is easier to fall into ugliness.
Nature possesses the rigour of beauty and we can see it in the colours, in the textures: everything is perfect and it is the only man that causes the ugly to arise. It is up to us to decide the change and we should never forget to desire this "clean," incisive action. So for Monica Silva, using beauty is essential to bring out the best in herself, to tell it through her art while managing to bring it to the surface even when dealing with subjects of denunciation.
The ugly can be told through crude, violent images that shake, make one uncomfortable, but one can choose
to tell it oppositely, with a different, more usable "spectacularity"; a soft approach, but not, for this reason, ineffective thanks to an aesthetic language that relies on beauty accompanied by biting irony, lightening the oppressive and negative atmosphere.
The path to arrive at this result is very complex. First, he performs historical research to sketch out the mood of the work: what to tell, what message it should contain, and how he wants it to be received. These aspects once outlined lead to the conception of colours, makeup and styling. Everything is then transcribed and drawn to further develop the idea making the final result more tangible. The next step is the study of backgrounds and colour matching to achieve chromatic harmony both in composition and possible juxtaposition with other works. This done, he devotes himself materially to the set design, the clothes, the makeup, and the 'hairstyle: each "compositional" detail is like a layer that is added to another, one thing does not go' without the other. At this point, he dwells on the lights to be used, where to place objects taking into account the shadows that can be hard, soft or eliminated and to how they affect the interior of the set design. The light the artist prefers is that which originates from the sunset, not so much for its humanistic effects, but for its symbolizing an end and the positive prospect of a new beginning, curiosity in tomorrow for what lies ahead, the wonder of living.
Last, he inserts the character, but only after assessing, by posing someone from the staff, that everything is okay and consistent with the project. This excursus on the method seems to me to be necessary to realize that the photographs we have the pleasure of seeing today are not the result of a simple click and that behind each shot, in addition to its commitment there are at least 10 to 15 people and several days of work.
Compared to the photographic technology of the past, The digital offers the possibility of capturing naturally the immediacy that together with the possibility of observing the result in real-time allows one to develop a freer gaze and consequently arrive at an increasingly independent creativity, but in any case, bound to the ability to capture the right moment to stop the expression, the desired movement of the subject, the underlining that when captured closes the circle, tying everything together.
It seems fitting at this point to open a parenthesis on the use of Photoshop in Monica Silva's work and what it represents for her.
With the advent of digital Post production work has generated havoc and the use of Photoshop is often "demonized" by so-called "purists" of the shot because they consider it an artifice that distorts photography.
Reality is different, in fact, the idea that before digital photos were exactly as they came out of the camera is not true. Since time immemorial photography, post-production, old photo retouching and other chemical and technical "magic" have gone hand in hand, and for over a hundred years before the invention of Photoshop and other programs.
It is obvious that if you overdo the use of Photoshop, it jumps out at you. It must be magic that is there, but if done well it does not stand out, caught up as we are in awe of the result.
In the days of analogue, the figure of the photographer was distinct from that of the developer, but with the advent of digital, the person who shoots is in charge of post-production himself. If he is then an artist, it is imperative.
Photography is a complex discipline, full of implications, stories and emotions that can take us where we have never been, so the person who shoots must be clear about what he or she wants to result from that defined space of action and about the 'importance of capturing as much as possible: shadows, reflections, curves, expressions.
This means taking special care, almost manic for her, in preparing the set to get as close as possible to the desired result.
For Monica Silva, using Photoshop is not putting into the image what is missing, it is a painterly action that intervenes in the details. It is like having in her hands the colour palette and the brushes to load those chromatics that the camera failed to register as she wanted, to eliminate imperfections and never to create something that is not in the set, except in certain exceptions, as in the photo with the android exhibited in the exhibition.
It is not easy to visually concretize an 'idea, to capture it in its entirety and make it real exactly as imagined, and for Monica, the use of Photoshop is a tool to help her get her imagination to overcome this limitation.
Each of her images has many layers and the need for control aimed at perfection is fundamental, a quest that pertains to every true artist, but one that we tend to accept more readily in painting where we take for granted afterthoughts and corrections made by the painter to arrive at a completed work.
For photography it is the same, so post-production does not mean transforming the photo into something it was not before, but helping to preserve in the image, the authentic intention at the origin of each click.
Ghandi stated that truth is the first thing to be sought after and Beauty and Goodness will add themselves. At the basis of everything must always be the 'orientation of consciousness toward the fulfilment of an action never diverted from the 'inspiration, from the goal. A creative gesture that must always enclose imagination and depth to realize a suggestion directed to awaken introspection: this is the creative instance of Monica Silva.
Valeria MazzoleniArt curator
Monica Silva - Art Beyond Imagination
Longari Arte Milano - November 17, 2022 - Corso Monforte 23 Milan, Italy
