AVIANNA ROSSETTI
Senior HL
Curatorial Rationale
BACKBONE
As humanity grows and changes, and technology progresses more and more every year,
the health of the environment degrades by the year as well. Being something that has inspired
me my entire childhood until now, and will continue to inspire me well into my adulthood as I
grow old, I figured I might as well appreciate the earth by adorning it with my art. For my 2020
IB Art Exhibit, I attempted to unite the artificial and natural world by combining man made
creations with the natural beauty of the world.
Instead of trying to bring the world to my art, I want to bring my art to the world.
However, I still wanted the space to be welcoming and be more put together than just some
paintings hung up on some trees. While I would love the viewer to get lost in the grandeur of
the earth through my art, I don’t want to sacrifice the formality, value, or purpose of my pieces
or my show. As I was attempting to hang up my art in the trees, I managed to locate a little
alcove that was the perfect size for an art exhibit. Equipped with walls and still surrounded by
trees, little purple flowers, and the green moss. To attempt to make the space more welcoming,
I placed a colorful stool from my room to create a comfortable space for potential viewers to sit
and admire my art and the nature that surrounds it. I wanted to keep it simple, and not distract
from the art or environment.
With my senior year show, I wanted to come up with something out of the box to
compensate for the lack of a formal show in the upper gym of my highschool. I’m going to use
this as an opportunity to make my show unique, have fun with the presentation, and enjoy the
world around us. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, the most fun part of my senior year was
taken from me. I no longer have my final show, but in these it’s crucial to dwell on what I’ve
gained from this experience, not lost. So, I’ve been spending my downtime creating art and
appreciating what I have. Nature... family... the backbone of our existence here on earth. I
wanted a visually interesting show with movement, but most of all I wanted to utilize what I
have, not what I lack. I might not have a gym at my highschool, or an abundance of admirers or
viewers, but I have a beautiful backyard with tall trees and green moss.
AVIANNA ROSSETTI
click images to enlarge - artist statements below - leave comments at bottom
ARTIST STATEMENTS
Verlagerung
20” x 16”
Oil on Canvas
When I began researching Expressionism, I instantly was struck with the inspiration for this piece. After reading about the anxiety that surrounded the first World War, I thought of my looming anxieties about leaving my hometown and going to college. Thus, I decided to let that emotion overtake me. Rather than being inspired by a piece or an artist, I was inspired by the intentions of the movement itself. I let go of reality and tried to reimagine my emotions. “Verlagerung” is the formal German word for “relocation”. Immediately, I pictured a dorm room. Small, empty, nothing. The room is the most clear, but the edges radiate into blue swirls of chaos. The blues in the painting represent anxiety, fear, and an overall sadness. The yellows represent happiness, excitement, and eagerness. The room represents me, my life, everything I have created for myself here that is good. The tree crashes through the window, leaving shards of glass on the floor, and intermingling with the chaos. The tree represents life and growth. You have to break down to rebuild again.
I will paint you red.
acrylic on canvas
16” x 20”
"I will paint you red" is about a falling out between two people. Before sophomore year I lost a really close friend, someone I continuously fell in and out of love with their soul and their person. I wrote a song called "Paint you Red", which in the initial sketch for this painting was written behind the snake coiled around the flower. For compositional reasons, I decided to ditch the lyrical background and go with a lighter, airy sky instead, feeling as though it would better fit the mood I was trying to display. The rose is in the midst of drying, and upside down, representing death. The snake coiled around is knotted up, which represents frustration, manipulation and lies. Despite visually being a generally graceful and delicate piece, “I will paint you red” holds a lot of emotional weight that contrasts this. I still wanted to portray this picture in a graceful light, to represent the overall beauty and joy this person brought me.
Mort De La Fête
oil on canvas
20” x 16”
We see a girl in a tight dress, leaning onto a toilet as though she was sick, suggesting that she’s intoxicated. This piece was made with the intent of shedding light onto the teenage practice of underage drinking. Her form is similar in composition to that of Jean Paul Marat’s in the “Death of Marat”, painted by Jacques Louis David in 1793 during the French Revolution. Oil was the medium of choice because the Death of Marat was also painted in oils. I wanted to show the contrast between someone who is seemingly “wasting her life away” partying and using drugs and someone who became a martyr for a revolution. This contrast highlights the fear of not making an impact on the world, and wasting life on pleasure.
Girl
Acrylic on cardboard
28” x 22”
This piece, being inspired by the New Yorker short-story ‘Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid, is about the high expectations society holds for women. Despite being written in 1978, the idea of the passage is still relevant today. I chose temporary materials to imitate the street art style and stress the anti-traditionalist values in the piece. I chose to use acrylic and cardboard because the cardboard’s texture is smoother than canvas, but is still unique. This achieves the modern pop-art feel. Achieving this does pertain to the meaning of the painting, because it ties the theme of the 42 year old passage to the modern day. The line “try to walk like a lady and not the slut you are so bent on becoming” from ‘Girl’ was the main inspiration behind my piece. The girl in the painting is pictured with her legs apart, indicating sexuality. She has her arms around her waist, in an attempt to make her smaller, representing shame. Her hair covering her eyes has the effect of removing her humanity, making it easier for society to judge her. This is not an uncommon practice, for women are constantly whittled down to be a hot body and nothing else, but even then, that will never be good enough.
No, I cannot draw hands!
5”x5”
Acrylic On Canvas
No, I cannot draw hands! is part of an overall feminist series. The piece was the first created, and sparked the inspiration for the series itself. Driven by frustration pertaining to the objectification of women, the focus of the painting is a woman’s. Toxic men (i.e. the type to catcall, abuse, and take advantage of people, particularly women) often do not see a person, thus I took away her face. I took away her hands and legs to portray a lack of ability to protect herself. The blue handprints are signs of mistreatment or objectification. If a person were to “lay hands on her”, perhaps in these areas, she has no hands, therefore, no ability to get justice. I included the text “No, I cannot draw hands!” to convey that I should be able to give this girl justice. But I, unfortunately, cannot.
I Eat, I Do.
5”x5”
Acrylic On Canvas
"I Eat, I Do." is also part of my feminist series and is targeted at the Body Positivity Movement. The body positivity movement is something I personally agree with, but I feel leaves a lot of people and body types out. For example, skinny bodies, or men. The media focuses the Body Positivity Movement on mainly fat women. The media often forgets that skinny girls and many men have a lot of insecurities with their bodies as well. I placed the yellow hand onto the stomach, often an insecure area for girls, and portrayed a “skinnier” body type. This piece specifically is my perspective, and acts as a retaliation to those (who are often strangers) who tell me I need to eat more. I love my body and I eat, I do. But when people tell me I need to eat, I feel like they are trying to rob me of my love for myself and my body by telling me I need to change. Society, on one hand, pressures us to be skinny, but on the other, tells us we need to eat.
After April
sharpie and spray paint on cardboard
13” x 31”
No, this piece does not say anything in sign language. Sign language is included, the first and third hands signals mean "I love you", and the last means "F*** You" in sign language, but overall this piece tells a story in retaliation to an absence of loyalty. Notice the two different kinds of hands, one slimmer hand type with long black nails, the other a little thicker with short uncolored nails. This piece tells a story of dishonesty and unloyalty. The second hand symbol holds the most weight. This symbol (which is not sign language) is the indication of an act of unloyalty. I decided to use cardboard and sharpie to represent the fleeting and short-lived nature of high school relationships. I attempted to seal this piece with spray paint, but in all reality, this was most likely done in vain. Much like we try to artificially preserve relationships that don’t work.
Brain Flower
Acrylic on canvas
16” x 12”
Brain Flower is essentially about separating the inside from the outside and connecting to the main components of yourself. I was inspired by a lesson in my English class on the parts of your persona, and I found the act of breaking down yourself and analyzing your most basic elements intriguing. Depicted in this piece, the subject is broken down into an essential two parts, her shell and her brain. I wanted to separate the visual aspects of the woman by which people judge her, and her brain, by which she gets her true value. The flowers around the subject are brain celosias, or coxcombs, which are not only for ornamentation but also indicate valuable weight to outward beauty and a connection to nature. I wanted to explore different values of color and shading with acrylics, which was something I had not yet fully explored. I chose a single color to create a flat background, which gives way to the full 3-dimensional shape of the head, flowers, and brain.
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make A Meaningless Painting.
Acrylic on canvas
8” x 8”
This year especially I have been struggling to find creative motivation for pieces. I want to venture deeper into thought and explore ideology I haven’t illustrated before, as well as experiment with new ways to illustrate that ideology. Putting too much stress and trying too hard to achieve these things all at once, I created this piece to liberate myself from the stresses of being a deep, intellectual artist. I’m smart and talented, I can admit. But sometimes, my perfectionism gets in the way of doing what I love- creating art for myself and others to enjoy. So, using my natural-born gifts, I made a meaningless painting (or is it?).
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