In our subconscious, the human form can be altered to fulfill a variety of desires, horrors and creative psychoses. Fingers roll out like a carpet into digit-shaped centipedes; feet emerge from the palm of a human hand and begin walking away into the darkness, finding nothing but a fulfilled nightmare full of comfort and terrifying accuracy . . . it may simply be a dream; then again, it may also just be the sculptural artwork of Alessandro Boezio.
Like a creative science experiment with Dr. Frankenstein and Salvador Dali, Italian artist Boezio uses our physical commonalities to bring our psychological conundrums to life. Some seemingly scary and some just simply fantastical, Boezio creates sculptural poetry that plays a fascinating game with perception. He is intrigued by the human understanding of real and illusory, of possible and impossible, of mythologies and metaphors.
Figurative sculpture has had centuries of practice to create perfection; the achievement of accuracy is no longer impressive. Boezio has taken the mastery of representation to a whole new level with an added psychedelic, anthropomorphic, conceptually confusing and humorous details in his compositions and portrayals. The accuracy in the body parts he uses in his creations is the most important part of his perception-pushing art. Without the clear illusion of reality apparent in his sculptures, viewers would not be so mesmerized by his impossible creature-based objects.
Fingers are some of the most beautiful items on a human, both conceptually and physically. They accuse, they grab, the touch, they give pleasure, they take; they are the means in which humans create and communicate. Boezio’s fascination with these touchy digits offers a simple and beautiful exploration of one of the only things that separates humans from other creatures. Taking those unique identifiers, those tiny and powerful tools we take for granted, and creating abstract narratives with unlikely single positions in static moments is a fascinating gift. Add a mastery of skill and technique to create realistic portrayals of human anatomy, and you have a breath of fresh and alarming air.
Boezio uses clay and fiberglass to create these mythological and unnerving anatomic experiments in artistic expression, often also imbuing his pieces with flesh tones or gold leaf to further push the perception of reality and artifice. His installation-based projects are even more poetic than the sculptures alone; using golden thread and shadows, he can create whole surrealist scenes in spaces. His work has been shown in exhibitions and projects all over the world, including Spain, Italy, Belgium, England, Germany and the U.S.
Boezio’s disbelief in permanence is pivotal in his work, he feels that everything can be transformed and changed, braiding together the many different lines of thought, creation, and understanding that is inherent in our culture and climate.
