NEW YORK, NY.- sepiaEYE is presenting Alien/Alieno, their first solo exhibition by Beatrice Pediconi. For the past decade, Rome-born and New York-based artist Pediconi has masterfully translated scientific studies and observations into meditative painting recorded by photography and video. Her works convey a sense of mystery and otherworldly connection, transporting viewers into a serene, alien, and yet strangely familiar universe. Pediconi’s strengths lie in her ability to weave together chemistry, physics, mathematics, music, photography, video, and installation into her own unique and transformative vision.
The materials with which Pediconi chooses to explore water’s spiritual and transcendent qualities have shifted over the years—from organic materials, to acrylic to powder. Her recent bodies of work on view, Alien, uses oil paint in both still images and a hypnotizing video. Her work plays with other forms of painting—painting that “mutates” not on the canvas, but in water, and with results that the artist can only partly control. The resulting images ask us to shift our perception from what we’ve become accustomed to when viewing traditional painting.
“The work is about timing, life, and perception to me. Timing because all different techniques are used: chemical research, painting, photography, bookbinding, and video. With each step there is a different timing process. The core is represented by the 9 artist books that record sequences .… Each Polaroid are to me like small, strange, alive entities who are part of a new project in which I try to explore metaphorically the border of perception that we have of the idea of “foreigners” as a territory or entity.” — Beatrice Pediconi, 2016
For the nine Alien artist books, Pediconi began by shooting 8x10 Polaroid images of her oil paintings on water in March 2015. The first book consists of two images representing the union of two elements to create life. Each book increases by one image per month, finishing in November with ten images (one full pack of Polaroid film). The resulting images resemble aerial landscapes that seem familiar but make the viewer feel like a visiting foreigner. The push and pull of the known and unknown is a defining quality of Pediconi’s work: a mysteriousness that is also inviting.
“These are works in which chance plays so great a role that the viewer is at least on equal footing with the artist. It is as if the work came directly from nature itself (as it has, in a sense)…. Allow yourself to see as if you were passing away as swiftly as the patterns that form on a wave. Allow yourself to see as if you never moved. Allow yourself to be temporary and timeless. As you are.” — Lyle Rexer, 2010
Pediconi’s fascination with the artist book format is seen in a book created for her solo show at the Collection Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 2014. A treasure box of pull-out sleeves, the book captures the flow of images (Polaroids and video stills) of the artist in dialogue with three incisive interventions: a haiku by the Japanese poet Momoko Kuroda, a musical score by the Roman composer Lucio Gregoretti, and a mystical chemical formula devised by Andrea Lerwill, a British engineer whose specialty lies in the sciences of conservation. These collaborations perfectly balance poetry, music, chemistry, and the visual arts in order to highlight the complexities within exploration and contemplation.
Pediconi’s recent solo exhibitions include Ephemeral Pigments, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York (2014), 9”/Unlimited, Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia (2014) and Untitled, shown at Arles as part of “Together, photography: The collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Ensembles, la photographie: quand la Maison Européenne de la Photographie collectionne) (2015) and No Trace, at the Macro Museum Rome, Italy (2011).
Notable international group exhibitions include Plumbing-Sequence VII-Real Time video Biennial, Reykjavik, Iceland (2015), The Polaroid Years, Vassar, NY (2013), L’eau et le Reves, Normandie Impressionist Festival, Normandie, France (2013), The Edge of Vision curated by Lyle Rexer /Aperture Foundation at Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona and at the Shneider Museum of Art, OR, (2010). Pediconi has won the VII Biennial of Experimental Art in Saint Petersburg, Russia (2008) and was included in Expression Méditerranéennes de la Poesie à L’engagement curated by Jean Luc Monterosso, Hotel des Artes, Toulon, France (2015).
Pediconi’s monographs include, RED (De Luca Editori D’Arte, Rome, 2011) and No Trace (Contrasto, Rome, 2011), Artist book, 9’/ Unlimited, Collection Maramotti (2014), and Something Alien (Danilo Montanari Editore, 2016) with text by Lyle Rexer.
