Arno Suite
In summer, 2016, in commemoration of the 1966 Arno River flood, the city of Florence and Fondazione Studio Marangoni commissioned me to create images for the “Arno Collective Imaginary”, an installation and exhibition at Le Murate Cultural Arts Center. Using mobile scanning equipment, I made renderings of nearly a thousand surfaces in close proximity to the river. Natural materials, textures, printed and handmade texts, plaques, graphic designs, advertisements, graffiti, photographs and drawings were all incorporated into this lexicon. By compositing hundreds of these scans, I constructed narratives that reference cataclysm and restoration, love and rebellion, culture and commodification. For me, the Arno manifests all of these qualities and represents the aspirations and realities that define the Florentine people, as well as the millions of visitors that have made this place a meaningful part of their lives.
Intended as public artworks, the images were printed on PVC vinyl and installed in the courtyard of Le Murate. The largest vertical banner measured approximately twenty-five feet long. The “White Arno” was created as a thirty-foot, horizontal billboard.