In the SFCB Gallery
Jan 25-Apr 25, 2008
Curators: Mary Austin & Kathleen Burch
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 Her Dream
Old book covers, Nepalese handmade paper, Japanese rice paper, and painted pages Pia Pizzo is internationally known for her drawings, oil paintings, artists' books and installations. Born in Italy, Pizzo lives and works in Long Beach, California. Since 1970, Pizzo has explored the book as an art form. Her "non-books" focus on silence, light and spontaneity. She comments: "In my books or pages the tactile values of materials are found in each and every sheet of paper that is torn and worked upon with such patient care so as to lay bare the innermost fibers, to feel its textures, its porosity, the very tissue of its surface. . . . the blank page thus represents the virgin void of mental space. In this way the progressive cutting, this virtual inter-framing between one page and another, opens up upon the perspective against which and within which the mind can roam at will. Pia Pizzo comments: "My tearing the paper is never the outcome of an aggressive approach but occurs rather from studied feeling and touching, from physical contact with both the material and reality at the same time, as a step towards thinking once again in tactile terms. "My art is the doing of it, rather the accomplishment. The real joy is what turns up unintentionally in the course of practice. When I start a work of art, there is an empty space, a void, and I search how to balance form with emptiness." "Pia Pizzo is interested in the tactile quality of material of non-books and non-readable books. Using handmade paper, she sees the page as a virgin void of mental space. With progressive cutting [and tearing], she opens up the perspective to create a feeling of mysticism, cosmic unity and sacred geometry. After studying, feeling and handling the paper in a kind of meditation, she tears these beautiful sheets, defying any aggressive act. In fact, she respects the paper as her medium, since it comes from France or Japan, China or Nepal. The source location in effect imbues its paper with its own spirituality." - Judith Hoffberg, publisher of Umbrella. | |||
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