OssiMoro sorVoLante

This characteristic late work by Luigi Ontani belongs to a series that he calls AnamorPose, with a clear allusion to the concept of anamorphosis. The title, a play on the Italian word ossimoro, meaning oxymoron, reflects the hybrid world of imagination from which the artist draws inspiration. The photographs show him winking ironically at the viewer in a Balinese mask of a Moor (Moro) surmounted by a crown of bones (Ossi). Repeated stays in the Indonesian paradise of Bali and first-hand contact with the local craftsmen have enabled Ontani to have a series of hand-painted ceramic or wooden masks produced in that exotic setting. The work was produced by means of the lenticular printing technique through the superimposition of two or more different photographs. As the viewer moves in front of the work, it appears to change and move so that the artist himself appears to be in motion. The complex architecture of cultured references that characterizes Ontani’s work is highly condensed here too. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)