Lavoro

About

‘A Mirror Painting is a means to orientation in the world, of encouraging conscious experience of phenomena as experienced from the first person point of view, invoking perception, thought, memory, bodily awareness and social activity. It is a work of art in the world and the world in a work of art.’ * Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present the second exhibition at the gallery of new Mirror Paintings by Michelangelo Pistoletto. In this body of work, Pistoletto highlights the world of construction: not the glossy end-product, but the process and mechanics of construction itself: the invisible workers, the drills and cranes that shift stone and earth, the temporary cordons, the dust and the rubble. He shines a spotlight on the incessant process of destruction and construction that is an inevitable by-product of any period of intense economic activity. Pistoletto gives us a partial view on this world: his thoughtfully calibrated compositions of objects and figures superimposed on the polished stainless steel assume a powerful sculptural and poetic presence. In these images, the drill becomes an object of menacing beauty, the pile of rubble an organic form, the cordon tape a haphazard abstraction. Even the workers themselves, their actions frozen in time, seem to assume a classical form: the side show in a monumental 19th Century history painting perhaps. Through our reflection in the mirror, we are invited to find our links with these characters and objects, to question ourselves and our position, political, social and spatial, in relation to what we perceive.