THE FINGER AND THE MOON #5
POLYPTICS
The Finger and the Moon #5 – POLYPTICS is a series of 7 artworks inspired by the medieval altarpieces consisting of a main image and a predella below. The works are built by assembling photographs and videostills taken from the live performances of LIUBA’s The Finger and the Moon Project.
All photographs and videostills that compose the Polyptics series are taken from LIUBA’s live performances. They are not the result of studio sets or post-production.
tecnique: inkjet on baryta paper on dibond with plexiglass and frame
edition/size: 3-piece edition + 2ap (sizes available 40×67 – 60×100 – 100×167)
year: 2013-2018
The idea of creating a Polyptic series takes inspiration from medieval altarpieces, in which the predella, placed at the foot of the main image, was used as a device to narrate the Sacred History in the form of a succession of images to those who could not read.
Each Polyptic consists of two parts: a main image – a photocomposition from LIUBA’s live performance – and the predella below.
The visual douplication of the main image is used as a device to symbolize the critical analysis made by LIUBA on faiths and religions, which are invited to reflect upon themselves – which lies at the center of The Finger and the Moon Project. Moreover, from an aesthetic point of view, the presence of a main body and a strip of underlying images delineates two fields of distinct tensions – a horizontal space and a vertical space – reflecting the tensions between the earthly and the spiritual world.
In the series, also the different colors have a symbolical role: a common thread between the various Polyptycs is in fact the color orange, the sacred color of the East, which is accompanied by a dialectic of tensions between warm colors and cold colors and between the different use of white and black – a dialectic of opposites that calls into question the concept of ‘infallibility’ that religions often assign to themselves.
The Polyptycs, therefore, expand and rework what is contained within the live performances, focusing also on the individual details of each of them; with a particular attention to the objects used in the performances, such as, for example, the dress worn by LIUBA. The dress has been especially designed for this project, and it is able to transform its function in order to be used to pray different religions rituals – shifting from a nun garment to the puffed Buddhist trousers, or again from the veil like that of Muslim women (longer than that of the nuns) to the brooch with the Jewish Torah on the sleeve.
The same attention to detail is towards the hands of the artist, who during the performance move in different ways to pray the different rituals of different faiths.
The Finger and the Moon is a work-in-progress site specific and interactive project involving several media. It’s about spirituality, respect, tolerance, doubt, human beings and differences. It’s a project of open questions. It’s about the importance of spirituality in life and the danger of fanaticism. It’s about social and anthropological issues as well.
It is possible to find all the info about the project here, while the project has a specific website and blog as well: www.thefingerandthemoon.net
The Finger and the Moon #5 Polyptics, 2013-2018
inkjet on baryta paper on dibond with plexiglass and frame
3-piece edition + 2ap
3-piece edition + 2ap
