What Can You See?

"What Can You See?"👀 and Franck at the exhibition Alter Ego,
of the Scuola Romana Dei Fumetti,  at Vertecchi Shop.
 Photo by Alda, Rome, 27th June 2019. 📷

🇮🇹 Prima di arrivare al lavoro definitivo su “What Can You See?”, ho lavorato su diverse idee.

Così era la commissione di Alter Ego per la mostra:

testo tratto da SRF.

Allora, la mia prima idea era di vedere finalmente Ziggy abbracciare il vecchio amico David, con un sorriso complice. 

Sketching my "Smiling Ziggy" by Franck

Ho però scoperto che la cornice era obbligatoria in verticale e mi sembrava troppo limitante per il loro abbraccio. 

Sketching "Smiling Bowie" by Franck

Allora ho pensato a un primo piano del suo volto, diviso a metà alla Alladin Sane e dal Bowie più recente, mentre si toglie via il rossetto, nel suo famoso gesto mimico di rifiuto; sullo sfondo, pensavo a una specie di galassia stellata e misteriosa. Lo schizzo però non rendeva quell’energia che Ziggy e Bowie sanno creare. 

Ho avuto un ripensamento che mi ha rubato diversi giorni: Un grande quadrante del Big Ben con i vari volti di Freddie Mercury, grande altra ispirazione per me… mmmh, troppo. Ma bello.

Infine, sono arrivata all’ossessione di Bowie per l’essere giusto o sbagliato, essere pazzo o savio. Ho visto i due Alter Ego fissarsi finalmente negli occhi, Ziggy turbato ma attratto, David ironico e strafottente - sul fondo le macchie del test di Rorschach, che sono state usate nella psichiatria per valutare la creatività, ma soprattutto i disturbi socio-patologici e relazionali. 

Be’, penso di aver centrato cosa abbia potuto significare per il Camaleonte del Rock, quel suo stile inquietante e affascinante che ha ammaliato per sempre il suo pubblico, ma anche chi non era fan. 

Il titolo “Cosa riesce a vedere?” era la domanda che ci si sentiva chiedere davanti al Test di Rorschach. Si pretendeva di codificare la creatività, l’originalità, ma soprattutto il grado di capacità a relazionarsi con il mondo. Per decenni, le macchie di Rorschach sono state sfruttatati per catalogare le nevrosi, i traumi, ma anche le capacità attitudinali degli individui. 

David Bowie e il suo Alter Ego Ziggy Stardust mi sembrano perfettamente incorniciati da questa macchia d’inchiostro che pretendeva di svelare i pensieri… 

Comunque, la Mostra Alter-Ego continua a Vertecchi in Via Pietro da Cortona 18 a Roma, fino al 6 Luglio, da Lunedì a Sabato, dalle 10.00 alle 19.30.😊

🇬🇧 Before getting to my actual version of “What Can You See?” as you can see above, I worked on several ideas. 

Commission for the exhibition “Alter Ego” from the task of SRF:

“Alter-ego, from Latin ‘Another Myself’, is a definition to describe a different personality, hiding inside the same individual. Making up an Alter Ego may come from psychological, artistic reasons, also for privacy. There are many interpretations.

Characters of double personality who change their forms and others who survive thanks to their secret identity, safely hidden behind a mask. Two sides of the same entity, two souls who are living different and opposite existences, sometimes unaware. 

The inner conflict between the characters and their Alter Ego reminds us how subtle may be the boundary between good and evil, the right and the wrong choice. 

The theme of Alter Ego, whether monster or hero, was dealt in literature, cinema, comics, animation and video games, in a continuous elaboration of the conceit of double life.”

Well, my first idea showed Ziggy putting his arm on  his old pal David’s shoulder, with a big smile of complicity at last. Though, I found out that the frame should be rigorously vertical and therefore it would have been too tight for their embrace. 

Sketch of "Bowie In-Sane" by Franck

So, I thought of a zoom on his face, divided in one half as Alladin Sane and the other side as the later Bowie, while he was removing his lipstick with his famous, mimic gesture of rejecting; on the background, I was figuring a sort of starry galaxy. Unfortunately, that sketch didn’t feed back the right energy that Ziggy and Bowie can make. 

I wasted several day in rethinking. In the end, there was an image that I wanted to draw - a big clock quadrant of the Big Ben with many Freddie Mercury’s faces, as you’ve already known, he is a huge inspiration for me too… hmmm, it would be too much, but beautiful. 

Sketching Freddie Changes for Alter Ego

At last, I came back to the Bowie’s obsession for straightness and being wrong, crazy or genial. 

I finally saw the two sides of Alter Ego looking in their eyes - Ziggy was upset but fascinated, David ironic and arrogant. On their background, there was the big ink stain from the Test of Rorschach, known in psychiatry to analyze disturbs of social relations and influences of the creative thinking. 

Well, I suppose in that way I hit the target about the meaning of his being the Rock Chameleon, the reason why his disturbing, appealing style has always fascinated his audience, not only fans, since from the start. 

My title “What Can You See?” was the typical question in front of the Test of Rorschach. Through that stains, psychiatrists supposed they were able to value creativity, originality and labelled them through charts. For decades, those stains of Rorschach were used to analyze neurotics, traumatic events together with individuals’ attitudes. 

David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, his Alter Ego, looks ideal to me, surrounded by this stain which supposed to reveal inner thoughts…

Anyway, the exhibition Alter Ego continues at Vertecchi shop, Via Pietro Da Cortona 18 Rome, until July 6th, from Monday to Saturday, from 10.00 to 19.30.

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🇬🇧 You could be also interested:

• ALTER EGO
• Attivare la Funzione D - Ritratto a memoria di Freddie
• Luglio - Disegno dal Vero #5 - Lumeggiatura a Tempera