REMAINS OF THE DAY. Photographs by Emilio Cresciani
- Date
- 16 June
06:30pm to 08:00pm
The Italian Cultural Institute and Co.As.It. invite you to the opening of
REMAINS OF THE DAY. Photographs by Emilio Cresciani
Friday 16 June 2017, 6.30pm - Co.As.It. Museo Italiano, 199 Faraday Street, Carlton, VIC 3053
Exhibition: 17 June – 18 August 2017
Tues–Fri 10am-5pm; Sat 12.30pm-5pm
Free event. Light refreshments served
RSVP: here or [email protected]
The most concrete emblem of every economic cycle is the dump.
Roberto Saviano, Gomorra
A new exhibition by emerging artist Emilio Cresciani at Co.As.It. Museo Italiano in Melbourne explores waste as a portrait of our lives.
Each photograph in the series Remains of the Day is a close up of different type of rubbish – tyre rims, circuit boards, hair dryers, cans, bullet casings, TVs, wires, internet cables and the other remains of our modern consumer lifestyle.
Cresciani says: “Each week our garbage bins are emptied, and redundant, useless, broken, unfashionable waste is collected. It’s the aftermath of life for that week.”
“As I visited waste centres, tips and landfills I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of waste. But I found beauty in the shapes and textures, and in the history and memories the rubbish evokes.”
Italian writer Roberto Saviano in his award-winning book Gomorra says: “Accumulating everything that ever was, dumps are the true aftermath of consumption, something more than the mark every product leaves on the surface of the earth.”
The shredded, squashed, cubed, jumbled and melted waste creates fascinating patterns and colour that are the focus of Cresciani’s work. He has printed the photos as negatives to create intriguing images, finding beauty in the ugly and the unpleasant. As an x-ray reveals the weakness or disease in our body, he hopes these photos expose our waste as being a shameful side of our lifestyle.
“Today our landfills are overflowing with the consequences of our consumerism. We don’t usually see these alien and disturbing places but we are involved with them on a daily basis through the products we buy and throw away.”
Sydney-based Cresciani was a finalist in the Chippendale New World Art Prize and the Agendo Art Prize in 2015, and the 2010 National Youth Self Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Australia.
Emilio Cresciani’s related work was recently featured in the Sydney Morning Herald and in the Canberra Times:
