Posted in Artworks
Since the half of the 1960s, the artistic research of Grazia Varisco has gone on with the works Mercuriali (Mercurials) and Reticoli frangibili (Frangible Grids), dealing with the issues of multi-stability and lability of images.
Mercuriali feature wire reinforced glass, an industrial type of glass of large use, already adopted in previous works such as 9×9×X. This material interferes with studs made of polished chrome metal. The materials employed – such as the magnets initially, then mercury, industrial glasses that decompose the image, the electric motor and light – are chosen according to the motives of variation.
In Reticoli frangibili, the uncontrollable and unpredictable variation of the image is the effect of the interference of the texture of wire reinforced glass with different signs.
These signs – which initially are coloured drawings, then become spot color cardboards – gleam, expand, shrink, shine. Grazia Varisco describes them as “lively, flickering like the red fishes in the glass bowl of Matisse’ painting”.
Artist Grazia Varisco
Date From 1965
Collection/owner Collection of the artist, Milan
Featured image Grazia Varisco, Mercuriale (“Mercurial”), 1965-1971.