French mixed media artist Vincent Gagliardi is out to connect two periods through the medium of traditional hand engravings.
Engraving, for those not in the know, is ‘the art of of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it.’ “It’s said to be the oldest form of imprint. Engravings go right back to the first man and it is also considered to be the first sign of human intelligence. I felt a remarkable connect with it and it’s resonance through the ages,” says Vincent, in French, with Francois Grosjean, director of Alliance Française de Trivandrum, translating for him.
Vincent first discovered traditional hand engraving technique during his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Metz, France, and never let it go. “When I started, it was considered as a ‘has been’ technique. I was interested in the process of it, in the intelligence of the technique,” says Vincent.
The weight of time, an engraving by Vincent Gagliardi
The artist uses balatum, a decorative flooring material made of asphalt-coated board, recycled from abandoned houses, as his canvas, adding another dimension to finding the connection between the past and the present. “I like that the material had its own experience,” he says, in his artistic statement. The technique is similar to block printing but the use of balatum allows him to obtain unique artistic effect not possible with most kinds of wood. “With this material I feel very close to the act of drawing on a piece of paper,” he adds.
Over the years, Vincent has created black and white and then red and green coloured engravings too. “I use non-toxic colours made of natural ingredients. The red in my paintings reflects my Italian heritage and is the same colour used in Italian mural art. The green is a nod to the nature that abounds my workshop, near Metz.”
His engravings itself are as highly abstract on paper as they are in thought. ‘The weight of time,’ for instance, depicts the life in context to the passage of time. The many “legs” seemingly stitched together in black represents how time - and life too - a long process. In the ‘The travel in the black hole,’ the artist paints a picture of modern lifestyles, through the depiction of a couple living between the four walls of an apartment; their television is the black hole. another series of three paintings, he has drawn his mother-in-law, who passed away in 1980, and his angst at her death. In the town cemetery, he sees her spirit hovering over her gravestone.
The most striking ones are, perhaps, black and white engravings of roads in Barcelona, New York and Metz that cover the entire canvas, just like gravel that covers the road. “My works are often created as part of a big performance on,” says the artist, who is on his maiden trip to India. “I like how modernity goes hand in hand with tradition here in India. It’s how it should be. In the West we have all but forgotten our past. My art works are one of the links with the past,” he adds. His exhibition is on at the Alliance Française de Trivandrum till March 11, 10 am to 6 pm.
