Artist statement:
'My practice begins with the desire to emerge from a sea of images, to find space to breathe within the constant flow of visual information that surrounds us. I approach images as starting points, using painting to transform them, allowing new narratives to unfold or intensifying a sense of anticipation, as if something were about to happen.
Painting becomes a way of asserting control over these images, of exorcising their power or exposing their emptiness. I primarily work with oil paint, whose texture and slow drying time allow me to gradually shape vivid, dreamlike atmospheres.
My process always begins with an existing image, whether a film still, a photograph encountered in the endless stream of everyday visual culture, or personal photographic material. Through painting, I seek to recreate the elusive quality of a dream, often approaching this by partially negating the original image through two key devices: blur and the stain.
Blur acts as a filter, evoking a sense of timelessness and distance, while the stain creates a barrier between the viewer and the image, establishing a sense of detachment from what has been depicted. It introduces an element of unpredictability, becoming a painterly explosion in which chance and chaos take over.
Through these gestures, the image shifts between presence and absence, clarity and obscurity, control and surrender. My work inhabits this uncertain space, where meaning remains suspended and the possibility of something emerging is always present.' - Rosario Sorrenti