Installations of Earth & Sea
Installations by Luca Spano that contemplate both history and time that is fleeting.
The Passage
Two symmetrical archipelagos. Lands crashing and meeting. Disappearing islands.
In a few days, the elements made of dirt will be destroyed, moved, or they will just disappear due to the weather. The bare central structure will remain.
Site specific installation. Permanent structure: steel, shattered laminated glass H79 x W39 x D79 inches. Ephemeral elements: squared blocks of dirt and straw forming two symmetrical archipelagos, assembled with a traditional technique called "terra cruda," multiple sizes from 24x24 inches to 8x8 inches.
Piazza Primo Maggio, San Sperate, Italia, 2017.
Looking for the North
This project gravitates around the concept of the north as a constructed convention that we use to orient ourselves and find our way to safer places. It is about a journey toward a place impossible to reach. A place that doesn’t exist, but that we have named. Reality, truth, representation, and the production of knowledge are entangled in a loop of colonial power that affects not only tangible territories, but also cognitive spaces. A loop where we produce the knowledge through which we are going to filter the world. But also the poetry of exploring, and the unanswerable questions suggested by heading towards the unknown.
Handmade book (title “log,” dimension 12x10 inches), photographs of different sizes printed on: Hahnemuhle Photo, Rag Satin paper, and mounted on aluminum (one 34x34 inches, three 16x16 inches). One rock, one map made of multiple pieces of National Geographic maps (85Wx66H inches), one ship made of books (dimension 60Dx30Hx18W inches + wood pedestal 9Dx9Wx41H inches).
Bibliowicz gallery, Cornell University, May 2016.
Leaving
An ever changing suspended island. A process of stratifying knowledge that creates a place. What we include/what we leave out, how this process produces the land we walk on, or the one that we dream to set foot on.
Sculpture: steel, wood, torn maps and pages from books, atlases, and magazines. H160 cm x W250 cm x D250 cm (63x100x100 inches).
Caelum Gallery, New York, 2016.
Formation #1
Stratification of images. Surfacing of an island.
Sculpture: steel, wood, B\W images printed on glass, rock. H160 cm x W55 cm x D8 cm (63x25x3.5 inches). 2016.
A Ploughman and Some Stones
This project focuses on the intersection between local beliefs, scientific documents, and visual representations related to the discovery of The Giants of Monte Prama, a unique archaeological finding unearthed in my native island of Sardinia in 1974, and recently displayed after a long process of restoration. The project materials come from different sources: photographic images from archives about the discovery, NASA archives, pictures and video footage taken by the author, as well as notes from the author's notebook and interviews. All these materials are the consequence of the collaboration on the field with archaeologists, geophysics, and local people during research carried out in 2015. The entire exhibition is an open narration grounded with actual and reliable data. It reflects on our filtered relation with reality and the construction of subjective narratives.
Collages, photographs, and illustrations of different sizes printed on: Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin paper, HP heavyweight Matte paper, and MOAK aged paper. One block of soil/dirt W120”x D80”x H52”, two loop videos on 20” monitors, two speakers playing one wind soundscape in the alcova of the gallery, pedestals, texts, and one stone.
Cornell University gallery, November 2015.
In Between
A lightweight, immersive installation representing the unstable and fragile connection of an ecology composed by subjectivity and landscape.
2 photographs, a seascape and a mountain view, divided in 25 Xerox each, single print 8x8 inches, total size of the composite image 44x44 inches, the images are installed on two opposite walls of the same room using needles, then connected through needles and threads. 2012.
Ekaf
A remote island and a long journey to get there. The desire of a person to discover a place, to document it, to verify if a small green mark on a map was a piece of land where he could walk on. A collection of photographs, illustrations, maps and texts to picture this almost unknown place. A journey inside the history, anthropology and geography that made this land real. The first contemporary ethnography of the island of Ekaf.
EKAF the book
250 copies, 148 pages
Designed and written by Luca Spano, self published in 2015.
Four colors offset lithography, wrapped in an original screenprint handmade by the author.
To learn more about Luca and to see more of his installations, visit his website.
Contributor
Luca Spano
Luca Spano is a Sardinian artist currently living in New York City. His work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals across Europe and the United States, receiving numerous grants and awards.