For the first time, the Italian artists Giovanna Cerise and Kicca Igaly work togeter in exibition, sharing the same theme, The Night. We interviewed both of them so visitor can have a deeper understanding of their work and how they developed their concepts for the art show at Artemis.
Karlos - You have a background as an artist in RL. Have you attended an art school in RL?
Giovanna - I have not attended an art school in RL. I, however, among other things, studied music and I graduated from the Conservatory in classical guitar. For a long time the music was my main activity. This of course greatly influences the way I work, my perceptions and my visions. Probably what I'm doing now is a continuation and an evolution of what has been done before, changing only the means.
Karlos - Are there artists in RL who have influenced your work? Is there any thinker who may have influenced aesthetic vision, RL and SL?
Giovanna - When I started playing with prims in SL I really had no idea what I was doing and where t would take me. I realized that I really like is experimenting. This trend has been more and more accentuated. My work is an ongoing research to combine the concepts with the emotion through form. I can not say which artists have influenced my work, consciously or unconsciously, I admire a lot of them. Lately I've discovered, thanks to a friend, Anish Kapoor, and I was literally fascinated. In SL there are many artists that have interesting ideas and an engaging work.
Karlos - Do you think the emotion emerges with more power at night than in the day?
Giovanna - I'm convinced of this. The night brings out everything from deep inside, good and evil. Each thing is amplified by the senses. The small details which we neglect consciously or unconsciously during day because it disrupts our daily lives, it presents itself arrogantly. Only the blinding light of the desert can give a similar feeling.
Karlos - There is an idea of Carl Jung and and Jungians like James Hillman, who called this trip at night over the sea.This idea is that in the darkest hours we explore more profoundly our feelings.
Giovanna - Yes, in fact I think he is right. In the dark all the things crop up in a very essential manner, as I have done in my work, everything becomes a mirage, a coming and going at the same time. The boundary between what actually exists and what does not exist disappears, from digging deep we go out always somehow reborn.
Karlos - The night is also the place of dreams-.
Giovanna - The night is the stuff of dreams for excellence, especially of impossible dreams.
Karlos - Maybe it is not the place of reason, but feeling and non rational.
Giovanna - Yes, it is a place of emotion and of what we consider irrational. Our education often makes us put aside the irrational, consider it a bad thing and especially dangerous.
Karlos - On the other hand, we live in a society where the focus is the reason.
Giovanna - That’s because we seek constant reassurance through rationality. It s better not dare and go no further. We often seeks the easy way out, one that does not strain the mind, which does not create disturbances. We are seeking an everlasting serenity. In the night, however, the unknown becomes the place of tension, exploration, where rationality is completely put aside. But few people go off the beaten track. and the most worrying thing is that often the new generation that should lead the way for the new was already born old.
Karlos - You said earlier in our conversation that "The night brings everything out of your depth, good and bad. Only the light blinding desert can give a similar feeling. Could this be art for you? A sort of awareness different from that we usually feel in everyday life?
Giovanna - I think our way of being and the way we perceive always come out even in everyday life. If we are used to search inside ourselves, to look into our emotions and our feelings, to be aware also of our drives, we always do it, although often unconsciously. The night and the desert make possible the realization of the emotional vision.
Karlos - The notecard we present at Artemis speaks of the event horizon and light cones.Could you explain how these theoretical concepts are related to your work?
Giovanna - The event horizon is predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. According to physicists the event horizon is an imaginary surface that surrounds each black hole. It's the limit, beyond which, it is no longer possible to go back. In the work presented at the night Artemis is conceived as an event horizon. The space is dilated and is ever changing, never equal to itself. Going beyond the limits everything disappears and nothing is the same as it was before. Light and shadow are key in creating this game and create a constant tension. The figures are motionless waiting projected in this change of perspective. They live their event horizon.
Karlos - Why did you choose the theme for this exhibition The Night?
Kicca - I proposed this theme and it was accepted with enthusiasm. Of course, besides me, it also has inspired Giovanna. I liked the freedom of expression that this gives us, the artists: the imagination can run free on many aspects of the night.
Karlos - Why did you choose the "most real" part of the show, considering that it is more related to “reality”?
Kicca - Very few of my works are pure abstractions, most of them have a tangible symbolism, even when produced with few signs, such as the ghosts and the same physical characters in the scene.
Karlos - You have never worked with Giovanna before, despite both being Italians and know each other. Why did you decide to work together now?
Kicca - This is the first time II work with Giovanna and it was a very positive experience, and I would be happy to repeat it. Giovanna is a fantastic artist and a lovable person. Duna has proposed to work together and at first I was puzzled because our styles are quite different. Then, however, the result has been proved right.
Karlos - Which conclusions did you get from this collaboration? Did you like it?
Kicca - This collaboration has led to the creation and presentation to the public of two works that represent different points of view on the same subject, which can stimulate the imagination of the visitor. I enjoyed seeing the final effect of the combination of these achievements.
Karlos - Do you Intend to collaborate with other artists in the future?
Kicca - For an artist, it is generally more difficult to work as a team because in addition of producing its own part of the work, the work must harmonize itself with the others. I like to work alone apart from a few exceptions. One is Nessuno Myoo. We have started in SL virtually at the same time and the harmony that is created in recent years makes collaboration easy.
Karlos - can you tell where you are from in RL?
Kicca - I'm Italian, I was born and live in Milan.
Karlos - Do you have a background as artist in RL? Have you attended an art school in RL?
Kicca - Yes, In RL I painted on ceramics and oil on canvas. My paintings are exhibited in RL also in my photo gallery of Second Life. But I did not go to art school.
Karlos - Are there artists that you like or have influenced you work in SL?
Kicca - The artistic influence of the works that in the time I met on my way in RL is undeniable. The art, if it works, it has an absolute power over the imagination and creativity and infects everyone, even me. In painting I like the Impressionists and the Macchiaioli and I am fascinated by the Metaphysical School. Regarding sculpture I find that the style often locks the artist RL in repetitive patterns. SL instead leaves me free to deal with different techniques and styles, while retaining my personal taste.
Karlos - What do you like most in SL with regard to the art?
Kicca - In the first place, sculpture, but I also appreciate very much the creative photography.
Karlos - Which types of media and techniques do you use in SL?
Kicca - I work almost exclusively with the native prim. It is always fascinating to find new forms from basic prim and couple them into complex structures. I don’t use scripts very often and focus my attention on the texture which, in part, I produced myself.
Karlos - Sometimes you work it reminds me of mannequins painted by de Chirico. Do you like this Italian painter?
Kicca - De Chirico fascinates me, but I do have him as a model. Although my work has been influenced by the Metaphysical School, it is not my major inspiration.
Karlos - A few years ago, I saw a work for you that might be related to The Night, since we can relate night and shadow. In that case, it was a shadow of a man covering a little girl, symbolizing evil approaching its prey. This is a recurring motif in movies, and it can be seen in films such as Murnau's Nosferatu and Fritz Lang's M, two old German masters. Do you believe that your work is affected in any way by the cinema or literature?
Kicca - Yes, in some work, like the one you mentioned, you can see these influences. After all, there are images that persist long in the collective imagination.
Karlos - Again, comparing these two works, we can see a deep care for the human being, especially those in need. It could be a reason pervades at least a part of your job?
Kicca - I have a particular focus on the human being and many of my works have themes that have a strong focus on human figures. This work, The Night, is an obvious example, but many other topics touched me deeply felt and sometimes highly critical towards extremes of human behavior.
Karlos - You and Giovanna seem to share the idea that at night people reveal their true nature.
Why do you think this? And for some people, SL has the same effect. Do you agree that in SL people also reveal their true nature? And is it possible to establish a link between night and SL?
Kicca - The only thing, in my opinion, that links night to SL is the fact that, for most of us, SL is an activity that takes place at night . At night we are alone with themselves, in most cases, and there are no masks that can relieve us of what we see. In SL everything isl a mask, even if someone decides not to use it, we must remember that the avatar never represents us exactly as we are. Someone exaggerates in some respects, as a caricature, others seek improvement, still others look for the total abstraction from themselves. Behaviors are affected by these choices and new relationships are built with what we have decided to show themselves to others.
