Listen: that which joins, separates.
My work explores the special nature of the photographic image as a Threshold, particularly in regard to the relationship between work and glance: vision and meaning are variables of one single experiential path that places the Subject actively at the centre of the work. Phenomenic reality and beholder’s glance merge onto the photographic surface, the place of coincidence between temporal and perceptual fluxes that are complimentary, yet distinct from each other, a symbolic field that joins and separates ate the same time, offering identity to both.
I am interested in the Reality of the Image, charged with meaning in the present time of experience: it is, as it happens. The work pertains to the individual and his awareness and the artist is the medium between Reality and Subject. The image is a vibrating threshold between elsewhere and present: the invisible underlies the visible; images are their symbolic forms of interpretation.
I’m aware that the bulimic condition resulting from the excessive consumption of images is producing a radical impoverishment of our visual experience, to the point that their overexposure is causing an incipient inability to see. My work suggests instead to slow down and listen, shifting the attention from the referent, reduced by now to a distant background noise of retinal vision, towards the Subject: He-She who sees, from the time and space of the shot to the hic et nunc of the beholder, establishing a more personal relationship between glance and image.The present time of viewing, the place in which this happens, reveal the meaning of the gaze, offering a new horizon of interpretation for thinking on Photography.
My works are symbolic places of query, reflection and identity, activators of processes and thresholds of perception; they connect different times and places, bringing them together in the present time of the Subject’s experience: this being there grants them meaning and splendour.
Silvio Wolf, 2014
Artist Bio:
Italian artist Silvio Wolf uses abstract photography and multimedia installations to explore themes of visual perception, absence and presence, and the language of images. In his series Horizons, Wolf takes the threshold between light and darkness as his subject, using a chance-based darkroom process that results in abstract fields of color, often reminiscent of paintings by Rothko.
Wolf primarily made large-format works early in his career but later began to incorporate various media—including light, sound, video, and still projections—into his art. The artist has stated that as he works on an installation, his subjective perception of the location transforms it “into a symbolic territory” and the finished installation “gives the audience a more general and shared understanding.”
To find out more, visit www.silviowolf.com. To view the gallery, please visit www.shma.com.
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