The enlarged fashion pages by Italian artist Stefania Fersini bring back to real scale the characters and the scene in the foreground, creating a parallel world made of models, scenarios, icons of our society. As in front of a mirror, viewers recognize the reflection they aim to identify with. Magazine papers picked recycled from rubbish, with their twists and reflections, divert the attention from the scene. Together with the products’ captions, they represent Consumerism and Appearance, that is the values and myths of nowadays society.
Therefore, the contrast between the depth of the scene and the surface of coated paper alternate producing a continuous change of perception. This continuous sway has an hypnotic effect that allows the observer to switch from conscious to subconscious and induces a personal reflection about the complexity of individuality in relation to these same models and values. My hand disappears behind the precision of the brushstrokes. Intentionally impersonal, my presence confirms my will to be the mean, a mirror, everywhere but nowhere at the same time.
I’m fed up of going fast, tired of the excesses and superficiality. I need to paint to slow down. I take time off, to meditate, to fast from what is too much to contemplate Beauty, where there is some. I copy because the solution to excess is not to create “new”. I copy like a mirror, because reflection is my choice.
www.stefaniafersini.com & www.gallerianumero38.com
