A Blog for Alfonso Filieri - Parole e Ombre Carta e Cera Chiave e Segnalibro

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art Received today 21 January 2011

I had to blog this,  because its just a fantastic.  I quoted from the Love Song of Prufrock earlier this week.  I have to do it again when confronted with Alfonso’s work :

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T S Eliot

 

“I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown”

Can you see and feel this?

Right inside?

Alfonso’s fantastic W contribution  for Project 26 .

 

And then:

“Do I dare

Disturb the universe? “

 

Parole e ombre

Carta e Cera

Chiave e segnalibro

aprire un codice

aspettare che un segreto

venga svelato

nel tempo

I REGRET not being able to translate this properly:

Words and shadows

Card and Key

Appearance and bookmark

open a code to wait

for when  a secret becomes revealed

in  time

Alfonso’s work is layers and secrets.  Memories and clandestine moments.  Waxed for preservation.

“As if the world gave up

The secret of its skeleton"

“I am moved by fancies that are curled

Around these images, and cling:

The notion of some infinitely gentle

Infinitely suffering thing”

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Mail Art Received 13th December 2010.

Some art works one receives are really very difficult to explain - they just ARE. They have a presence discernible to  anyone who values aesthetics.  This is such a work.  Alfonso appears to tell a literary story without the presence of words - his treatment of material tells the story of polishing and waxing, pigment that saturates the fibers to become a memory - a generic memory.  Then I can smell the wax.  The preservation of memory.

In places the piece is see-through - one of my favorite expressions.  The layers, the blocking and then the light.  In the piece below I have overlaid Alfonso's work onto some of my own text to illustrate the point.

Of course, when I went onto Alfonso's site, and tried to translate his words, a name stood out - a favorite name - T.S. Elliot - then I knew why I reacted so well to Alfonso's work.

"That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood -

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good".

Do yourself a favor and browse though Alfonso's site

www.alfonsofilieri.com

You wont be disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cheryl penn]

Just to add to the beauty of this piece, it came in this folder made of exquisite paper:

I am not going to attempt a direct  translation - I know I will miss the subtlety  of the words, but I think it reads Flowers of Stone at the Cavern of the Siren.

And Inside, a poem

which mentions memories and whispers.  If you're out there Alfonso, rescue us.

[De Villo Sloan]

What these book artists are doing is extraordinary. The book is alive and well in the 21st century and beyond. I am not only awed, I am excited.

[Jen Staggs]

How unique! I've never seen work like this, is it pressed petals?  Something melted between wax paper?  I can't figure it out.  His site is extraordinary.

[cheryl penn]

I cant describe how great - its fantastic - quietly so, in a genteel way - its, yes, an everlaster x

[Lindsay Stewart]

I can't be positive, but I bet this feels great in your hands.