Subject-Object
Critical commentary by Lorena Gava
"The artistic universe of Massimiliana Sonego has reached a turning point.
After many still lifes seen from the outside, through a punctual analysis of the objective data composed mainly of vases, flowers, and containers placed on simple but richly historical furniture surfaces, the artist breaks the unity of vision with an eye dropped inside the object itself capable of bringing out another truth. It is as if the veil of appearances, previously extraordinarily played on chromatic assonances, on perspectival rationality, on the care of detail and decorative aspects, had been definitively lifted or even torn off in order to reveal a combination of hidden forms, a structural logic otherwise destined to remain silent or ignored.
There is a strong intention to discover an existential map far from the phenomenal and centered rather on the irreverent game of parts: the object itself loses the certain connotations of spatial arrangement and undergoes the charm of deconstruction, perspectival and compositional fragmentation. Thus, of the known reality made up of chairs, sofas, furniture, and boxes, only the perimeters or better yet, the skeletons remain, materializing into a memory made of thick, wide, articulated and disarticulated lines in a labyrinthine play of geometric solutions. Quadrangular and elliptical shapes never regular take shape, often crossed by a wave-like movement similar to weak tremors that make the whole unstable, waiting, perhaps, for other spatial asymmetries. The absence of perspectival installation for the declared intention of placing each individual piece on the same plane changes the sense of relationships and connections: whether it is a vertical arrangement or a horizontal alignment, the charm of vision arises from the unpredictable risk of pairings where, nevertheless, nothing is left to chance. The stringent logic of the parts prevails which, although disjointed and dismembered, do not hesitate to gather together in unity, in a whole that takes into account, in equal measure, the large and the small.
The decomposed, enlarged, detached object becomes the subject of an unexpected reality that takes place on the surface without hindrances, in the fullness of a freedom finally reached and achieved. A thin thread of white or black color often traces these disemboweled entities, perhaps with the intention of recognizing their original unity, a thread that deliberately contrasts with the underlying chromatic weights, almost a seamstress' thread that stitches pieces of fabric.
The colors that Massimiliana Sonego uses are always refined, highly sought after, following the repeated trend of objects and accompanying the scenic warp with a happy visual impact. Saber cuts of red, blue, and purple contrast with the grays of the backgrounds and animate the narrative texture with timbre references. Sometimes the scene becomes more silent, absorbed, and the colors are based on delicate shades of pink pigments, similar to powder, other times the chromatic violence becomes material and emerges from the background with sudden and projecting stratifications.
It is difficult to remain indifferent to these naked subject-objects, deprived of their usual being, but precisely for this reason worthy of the depth and intelligence of our gaze."
