From funerals to famous David Bowie songs to British sci-fi sitcoms, the phrase “ashes to ashes” takes on new meaning every time it is used. With Fulvio di Piazza’s recent exhibition at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York, this metaphorical 360-degree view of life is once again reimagined. “Ashes Has Settled” depicts smoldering scenes in anthropomorphic detail. The faces set against the mountains appear to be constructed from twisted fire-kindlings of varying degrees of charring. Smoke billows from all corners of the painting, and embers spurt from the eyes and mouth. In di Piazza’s images, the world is both built of ashes and consumed by ashes.
Palermo artist Di Piazza is working on his painting “Uomo Nero,” which shows an extremely grim face with irises that rise into thick clouds of smoke that double as eyebrows. He stumbled across a copy of economist Jeremy Rifkin’s controversial book “Entropy” in his father-in-law’s library. The author’s grasp of entropy and thermodynamics is often questioned, but artists appreciate Rifkin’s
A philosophical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics at a metaphorical level. “We are nothing and the earth does not belong to us,” he explained in a translated email. “What I mean is that progressive-minded humans don’t see their actions as being a devastating burden on the balance of nature,” DiPiazza said.
For di Piazza, this manifests itself in the gray scenes that form on his canvases. He was looking for what was missing in everyday life, namely “natural energy” rather than “the energy that humans try to produce every day in the name of progress, which in our case means destruction”. Soon after, he heard David Bowie’s hit “Ashes to Ashes” coming on the radio, and all the inspiration he needed for the show, including a title, fell into place.
…The city of Palermo is a perfect combination of light and darkness. “
