RICARDO PASCALE
ABOUT "UNQUOTED"
I have developed an alphabet consisting of 31 letters, different of those of the Latin based, or Hebrew or Russian or Arabic or Serbo Croatian or Greek alphabets.
I attempt to create a form composed by several objects. By my creating a language based on visual information, the viewer may experience this as tension, leaving them to imagine what is the meaning of the phrase.
For some, language can be seen as part of the knowledge we add to the world. For others, it represents the misunderstandings present in the contemporary world. Someone says something. Someone else doesn’t understand. And so on.
ABOUT THE QUOTE
I quote a sentence spoken by Pope Paul VI to Cardinal Albino Luciani in a Congress of the Bishops of the Veneto Region. Luciani, at that time, was the Patriarch of Venice and seated at the right of the Pope. At the end of this session, the Pope was standing to close the congress, and the rules are that he takes a small bell situated in the right armchair of his seat. The Pope tries time and again to take the bell, but he cannot reach it. Cardinal Luciani gently helps the Pope to find it.
When the Pope takes his seat again, he says to Luciani in Italian: “E gia,adesso sa dov`e”
My piece presented in literary terms, is a translation of this sentence to the alphabet created. In English it means: “And now, you know where it is”
This sentence, at that time was taken as a clear indication of the Pope’s preference about his successor. The Pope was probably right. After his death, the Colegio Cardenalicio (College of Cardinals) voted with great enthusiasm to elect Luciani to be his successor. Luciani accepted, and took the name of Pope John Paul I.
| Gallery: | How did you come to choose this quote and story? What is the personal meaning |
| and message for you? | Pascale: | I believe that in the contemporary world there is a pronounced lack of leaders |
| bringing hope to people. | |
| Pope John Paul I (former Cardinal Albino Luciani), was a man, who without pomp, in contrast, with humility and radiance opened a real and credible way to the HOPE of the people. | |
| The meaning and message of the work "Unquoted" is to call attention to the viewer (in my language) through the prescient words of Pope Paul VI about the emergence of a new leader bringing HOPE. The message and the meaning is not religious; it is about HOPE. | |
| Gallery: | What are you, as an artist, looking to tell your viewer? |
| Pascale: | I am always very interested seeing my work interact with the viewer. |
| I want my work to say something that the viewer has forgotten (or does not know) and thus can generate a creative process or movement within the viewer. | |
| "Unquoted" takes a formal approach in material and structure; developing a quote in a new language to interact with the viewer. | |
| So probably, by asking more about the work and it’s meaning, (with a little luck) we achieve our goal. | |