Massimo Bartolini
The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh is showing the work of the Italian artist Massimo Bartolini. Working within installation, the show ‘Studio Matters +1’ also presents a collection of smaller ‘studioworks’ by the artist.
In the downstairs space lays La strada di sotto (The Street Below) 2011. This spectacle buzzes and flashes in an array of colours. There is a warmth added to the room, as oranges and reds glaze the walls. Placed on the floor this installation parallels the spectacle of human endeavor with the vision of one. Bartolini plays with size and materials in a very minimal manner, however it’s very gestural and human in attitude. There is a simplification of our infrastructure with the circuits, wires and energy working in similar fashion to our own society.
In relation to the exhibition as a whole, the piece maybe contains the idea of the flickering of creative synapses, fleeting glimpses of inspiration that twitch in and fade out.
Upstairs, on large turquoise tables and hung on the wall is a collection of smaller works. These objects, often brewing with humour and play, map out a creative thought process.
The objects and works on paper hang between the balancing of materials. In particular ‘The Sheep Smile’ (2012) parallels an iron vice with 6 delicate pearls. The pearls are caught between the danger of being crushed or, falling and rolling to nothing than what they were before the action. Bartolini seems, in his studio, to be preoccupied with the point at which something is created; the balance between something and nothing. ‘Story on Fax Paper’ (2012) tackles this directly; a large length of fax paper that is blank apart from the creases made by the misfeeding of the machine is pinned to the wall. The story is engrained into the page and nothing more is to be said.
The humorous fluxes of uncertainty engrained in these objects are key to the creative process; they are impulsive, free and playful.
The exhibition peaks in the far corner of the room where a dried thistle has been placed on an alabaster chair, and suddenly a practical joke is turned into a delicately considered moment.
The exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, continues until the 14th of April 2013
Top Image: Massimo Bartolini, La strada di sotto (The Street Below), 2011.
Installation view, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London.
Photograph: Alan Dimmick
Massimo Bartolini Chair, 1997
Iron, alabaster, dry cardo palustre; 39x44x81cm
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London. Photograph: Alan Dimmick
Massimo Bartolini Meeting, 2011
Plywood, painted chopstick, stone; 22x12x20cm
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London. Photograph: Mariangela Insana
Massimo Bartolini Paola’s Alps, 2012
Plastic box, stones; 30x49x13cm
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London. Photograph: Mariangela Insana
Massimo Bartolini The Sheep Smile, 2012
Iron, 6 pearls of 9mm diameter; 24x13x12cm each
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London. Photograph: Mariangela Insana
Massimo Bartolini Studio Matters + 1
Installation view, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Courtesy the artist and Massimo de Carlo Gallery, Milan/London.
Photo: Alan Dimmick
