Thomas De Falco – Untitled

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On October the 19th 2012, artist Tomas De Falco will be presenting his solo-show ‘Untitled’ at the Room Gallery in Rome. The exhibition is part of an extensive programme of interdisciplinary events and exhibitions architected by the dynamic gallery director Kevin Pineda.

The Room Gallery, in the central district of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II of the Italian capital, serves as a perfect host for the introspective and thoughtful themes generated by the self described ‘Textile Sculptor’ Thomas De Falco. Although this term could diminish the real scope of his wide application to a number of mediums within the artistic spectrum, the title of Textile Sculptor might well be the best description of the artist’s work. De Falco’s practice as a whole is in constant movement, migrating through multiple disciplines, including performance, sculpture, painting, photography and video. These vehicles are not only conventional ways of making work, moreover these become necessary tools to comprehensively convey and elucidate the elaborate reasoning and discourses woven within the work itself.

The exhibition is comprised of four works by the artist: Three physical pieces (Textile Sculptures), varying in size, and one video projection presenting one of the artist’s filmed performances.

De Falco’s largest textile sculpture, mirrored by a smaller version also included in the exhibition, is mounted on white canvas and purposely titled, ‘Untitled’. The work is placed on the largest, empty and porous wall of the cavernous gallery, a decision well thought out by the artist; De Falco’s work is in direct conversation with the space itself. His white textile protuberance originating from the mounted canvas, or symbolic ‘head’, is sprawled along the gallery floor occupying 8 meters of the space. Much like a white woven root, or more poignantly, an umbilical chord, this piece encompasses all aspects of De Falco’s dramatic and romantic reflections on personal loss, the role of conscience and the fine line between beauty and aesthetic façade.

De Falco, a former model, knows all too well what the pitfalls associated with our cultural and sociological quest for aesthetic acceptance can be. Theses particular notions are exemplified on a larger scale in his performance ‘Constellation TN’ enacted in Milan’s Piazza XXIV Maggio in 2011 and presented in the gallery as a video projection. Comprising of 22 improvised actors and professional models, this thoughtful enactment presents De Falco’s most ambitious and dynamic work to date.

The artist’s overall body of work, crystallised primarily in lengthy white woven sculptures, shifts in aesthetic vision and theme with the small-scale piece ‘Petit Nocturne’. Carefully located within a floating transparent plinth, purposely hung by white threads, ‘Petit Nocturne’ thematically aims towards a darker and multilayered discourse; Its surface covered in black fabric is placed on an evenly dark canvas, black threads obscuring the uneven body of the cloudy sculpture.

The choice of colour, much like all of De Falco’s work, is direct and symbolic. Be ready to discard what is purely visual and conventionally ‘beautiful’ and be guided through a thought process where beauty in many cases turns out to be pleasingly defective.

Niccolò Fano