Emerging

EMERGING + EMERGING REFLECTIONS | Revisiting Canova plaster sculptures 

Edition of three | >> Blockchain registered  

The works from the Emerging series were created in 2006 as Artist's Proof to be part of a series of exhibition projects. In 2024, they are re-presented as an edition of three processed using the technique of chromatic sublimation on aluminum. Also added to this project are a series of totally new works Emerging Reflections that through the specular arrangement of an anatomical part of a statue create abstract figures.

Emerging was born from a series of black and white photographs of Canova's plaster busts, taken by Morucchio in '94 at the Gipsoteca di Possagno, near Venice. >> Gipsoteca 

The artist focuses his attention on the map of coding points imprinted on the plaster, reference points and codes of an ideal of beauty, which were used by the neoclassical artist to control the transformation of the work from preparatory plaster to Carrara marble.

And so, through the photographic medium, the artist searches for his personal ideal of beauty; he dissects Canova's bodies, mutilates them, isolates a part, subtracting it from multiplicity, focusing on the bust, which thus becomes an element full of meaning, as the seat par excellence of emotions, of the pulse of life.

And, not surprisingly, through digital reworking, he turns the images in various shades of red, a highly symbolic color, synonymous with pain and suffering, alarm, transgression and passion. 

Color is, according to Kandinsky, "a means of exerting a direct influence on the soul" and here, in its materiality, it is metaphorically revealed among the muscle bands of those robust and strong torsos, healthy bearers of a captivating and intense sensual charge. 

This series of digital works was created in synergy with the >> Offshots sculpture series for the two solo exhibitions in 2006, Emerging Code in >> Berlin and >> Hobart. 

The same subjects were subsequently exhibited in a solo exhibition: >> ['Bækgraund], 2010 and a couple of group exhibitions: >> Notturni Danunziani, 2008 and >> Anti_Corpi, 2011.

For other exhibition occasions Morucchio has elaborated a couple of the same Canovian subjects in gray scale, for the solo exhibition >> Back in Black and group show >> Silent Movies.

The Emerging series, initially conceived in 2006 as Artist's Proofs for exhibition projects, has undergone a significant evolution in its 2024 re-presentation. 

Morucchio introduces a new dimension to the project with the Emerging Reflections series. This extension of the original concept involves the creation of abstract figures through the specular (mirror-like) arrangement of anatomical parts of statues. 

By reflecting and rearranging these classical forms, Morucchio generates entirely new, abstract shapes that retain a connection to their origins while simultaneously transcending them. These mirrored compositions suggest a dialogue between the past and the present, between the tangible and the abstract, and between the classical ideals of form and the modern inclination towards deconstruction and reinterpretation.

This development not only enriches the Emerging project but also broadens its conceptual framework, inviting viewers to engage with the works on multiple levels—both as reinterpretations of classical art and as explorations of form, color, and abstraction. The 2024 edition, with its innovative techniques and expanded series, highlights the enduring relevance of these classical forms while pushing the boundaries of how we perceive and interact with art.