Work: Signs, wood

Description

“…(he would say) that reality was a sign in the widest meaning of the word, which had to always be deepened, and that life was truly beautiful exactly because of the search for meaning, rather than for an adventure”, Luca Sguanci.

“Signs”, made of wood, is a work created around 1990by Loreno Sguanci, an artist born in Florence who then moved and settled in the Marche region. It is a rectangular wood slab, carved on both surfaces and 100-centimetre high, 92-centimetre wide and 0.5-centimetre deep.

The front surface appears divided into four parts by two smooth, red lines. Originating from the top corners, they draw two symmetrical arches that end in the bottom corners; the two lines meet in the lower part of the slab, where they form a small black lozenge.

Textures vary: the upper wash is characterised by a series of alternated smooth and rough rhombuses, which form a sort of chessboard. The two side areas have a series of thin, horizontal grooves. In the lower part, the grooves are wider and follow the same curved shape of the two red lines.

At the back, two smooth, red, diagonal lines divide the space into four equal triangles. The top part is split by a wide wavy stripe, which is slightly in relief, and crosses the area horizontally. Another two similar stripes cross the lower triangle horizontally. The two side triangles are instead characterised by a series of deep, narrow, undulating grooves.

Touching it, the hand can easily follow the lines and washes gouged by the artist, and appreciate the alternating more or less polished or rough surfaces.

For a long time, Loreno Sguanci directed his own artistic search towards exploring the concept of Sign; it is not by chance that this is the title of several of his works. Sign is intended as a signal, as a mark of human trace, of human existence, and finally as the very work of the artist in his dialogue with the material, which in this case is wood.