“Waterbones (Stochastic Choral Sinphony)” by Loris Cecchini was the protagonist of the artist’s solo show “The Ineffable Gardener” at Galleria Continua / San Gimignano in 2018. Occupying the stalls area of the former cinema-theatre space, the structure has an adaptive capacity and consists of thousands of steel modules. The artist has named these “waterbones” due to their intrinsic lightness and structural freedom.
Working in modules is an approach that Cecchini has developed throughout the years; his original modular installations came to the fore in the early 2000s when he worked with polyethylene balls, assembling them to form an undulating conglomeration. Cecchini used these as the first iteration of the module, interested by their effect on light as it was filtered through them and by their predisposition to being attached to a frame. The form they then adopted was different from the supportive structure underneath and the multitude of modules together managed to create the illusion of a liquid-like homogeneous material.
Encouraged by the limitations of polyethylene, Loris Cecchini then went on to experiment even more with the “module”, conceiving a new tripolar one that recalled a three-dimensional diagram, allowing itself to be considered as a single element that contributes to a larger structure or as an independent sculptural form. This time the module was reflective and made of steel; a durable material that also provides the opportunity to repair and replace modules when needed.
This consideration of the material and how it reacts to its environment is indicative of the artist’s focus on how these installations also relate to the space they occupy. Due to the interchangeable nature of the modules, the work interacts with its surroundings as part of a symbiotic relationship. Without the limitations of the space containing the work, the combinations would be almost infinite. Similarly, in nature the mathematical algorithms that dictate patterns and structures must have some kind of external obstacle to their growth and development otherwise the combinations would be unlimited. The installation is therefore an organic simile for which Cecchini uses a combination of industrial processes and artisanal practices in order to produce the modules. These hold endless possibilities when it comes to representing a structural metamorphosis most likely to be found in nature.
“I have devised my creative language around the ideas of the object, the model and architecture. Often the work refers in different ways to the idea of inhabiting space. Currently, I am exploring the space of sculpture and of the environmental installation according to a notion of the parcelization of material, almost a sort of molecular deflagration of sculpture, in which scientific phenomenology becomes an intimate structure and go-between for vision. This is after having for many years investigated the human relationship with curved space, a space where the right angle and the Euclidean paradigm give way to organic deformation, pervading the sense of form. What I produce on different occasions are series of works using media ranging from watercolour to photography, from the large-scale environmental installation to the micro-sculpture. It is a space that spectators themselves walk around in and complete. There is the constant idea of a “dual landscape”, in which the physicality of the materials refers to a virtual design and vice versa.”
