Crumbling Portraits
Drawing on walls with paper packing-tape, 20x20cm
2012
This installation was created on the walls—imperfect yet rich in history—of the Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno, where the faces seem to emerge from the texture of the plaster itself. Portrayed are the four faces of men and women seventy-four, eighty-five, ninety, and one-hundred- and-three years old. The sense of crumbling is due to the material I used in making the portraits: paper packing-tape. Because of the humidity and the passage of the corridor, the substance of the portraits is destined to come away from the wall and crumble, creating a rough depiction of the facial features that will inevitably disintegrate over the course of the exhibition. e overall effect is that the entire structure of the building is growing lighter: the gradual, alienating disappearance of the faces “drawn” with adhesive packing tape almost seems to be the projection of a painting of the video contained within frames, as “broadcast” in the adjacent rooms.
