by Dafne Crocella

She was born in Massa in 1995. After graduating from the State Institute of Art “Felice Palma” in 2023, she received a degree in Visual Arts-Painting with highest honors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara. Since November 2022, she has been a speaker in the lecture series “A Look at Art.” Her artistic research focuses on the theme of metamorphosis, which she explores through the technique of oil painting and through the experimental graphic technique of monotype. The figures are protagonists of a transformation that leads them to a spiritual state, representing the climax of human fragility.

Your work Alchemy is a small 9-page book made of aluminium treated with solvents and chemical alterations. You made it to the 13 finalists of the 11th edition of the Comel Award, selection after selection. Can you tell us how this work came about?

The work Alchimia is the result of total experimentation, from the material in its form to the final result as an artist’s book. After reading the competition announcement, I decided to take up the challenge and approach this material, aluminium, which I had never used in my previous works. What struck me most about this material is its ability to be transformed in various ways.

This edition of the Comel Award is dedicated to what lives beneath the surface. How do you think your work has responded to this theme? And how much is this type of research present in your work?

In this work, the theme beneath the surface was addressed through the corrosion of the aluminium sheets, showing the layers that make up the material itself. As my artistic research currently focuses on metamorphosis, I wanted to apply the same idea to this work, subjecting the aluminium sheets to a metamorphic process.

Oil on canvas

Alchemy is a title that offers an essential key to understanding your work by bringing together technical aspects and conceptual research. How did you choose this title? Was the search for alchemical transformations of materials already reflected in your work?

The title indicates the story of an alchemical process. Actually, being an experimental work, I had never applied direct transformations to the material itself, rather I used a media to depict the metamorphosis.

The work involves a mix of corrosive treatment with ferric hypochlorite and the use of blue alcohol paint. What is your relationship with this colour?

The creation of the work developed in several steps. The first step was to dye the aluminium plates using the spray technique with blue alcohol paint, a type of paint used in engraving to protect the matrix. Next, the plates were immersed in ferric hyperchloride, which, with different biting times, corroded them until the desired effect was achieved.

The choice of the colour blue was dictated by the material itself (the alcohol paint), which is naturally this colour. However, blue is a recurring colour in my work because it recalls the element of water, which I consider the most metamorphic element in nature.

The work Alchemy is an artist’s book. What is your relationship with this object? Have you made any others? Do you have artist’s books by authors you are particularly attached to and who have influenced your work?

The creation of the artist’s book is also part of the experimentation. The initial idea for this work was not that of an artist’s book, but when I finished the process of corrosion of the plates, I started to “page through” them and realised that it was a story about the material and its transformation. Hence the idea of creating the book, an art form that has always fascinated me.

Screen printing on aluminium

In this work, you have experimented with metals in a new way, but your research has generally moved on to other techniques. Can you tell us something about your materials of choice?

My core technique is oil painting, which I use either in a traditional way as in the works I presented for my thesis, done on canvas, or monotype on paper and fabric. I am currently approaching screen printing and am also experimenting with printing on aluminium to explore new effects.

Are there any artists you feel have influenced your path or by whom you feel particularly inspired?

I do not have any specific artists of reference, but in the course of my studies, I became interested in the work of Picasso, Klein, Firelei Báez, Miró, Leonora Carrington, and others who explored the theme of the metamorphosis of the figure. I enjoy studying artists both contemporary and from the past to understand the various art forms in relation to what I want to express.

Study on DNA

In your conceptual research, the theme of metamorphosis returns and also of what transforms us by living beneath the surface. Both alchemy and metamorphosis are themes that tread the delicate line between science and myth, between physics and metaphysics. Are there any aspects that you feel are particularly representative of this encounter?

Metamorphosis and alchemy are ancient concepts that have always accompanied human history. I am fascinated by their primordial ideas and how, in each era, they are approached in different and innovative ways with respect to the historical and cultural context. I am currently working on works that deal with the theme of metamorphosis from a genetic point of view. This idea came from reading Emanuele Coccia’s book Metamorphosis, in particular the following quote:

‘Through birth I carry within me the form of my father and mother: genetically I am the improbable and noisy dialogue between their bodies and forms. The oblivion that coincides with birth is the deepest constitutive element of memory. On the other hand, my parents are also the fruit of this forgetting and mixing. To have in me the body of my father and mother, to have their forms, to have their life means to have in me the body and life of an innumerable series of living beings, all born from other living beings, up to the frontiers of humanity and beyond, up to the frontiers of the living and beyond.’ After reading this passage, I decided to research the element that binds us to all other living beings: DNA.

What will your upcoming events be?

My next event involves participating in a group exhibition to be held in July at the Locanda dei Banchieri in Fosdinovo.