ARTIST BOOK
SECRET GARDEN
2018, Danilo Montanari Editore
introduction text by Erik Kessels
Dimensions: 16x20cm
pages 108
trade edition of 100 (italian/english version) numbered and signed by artist
10 special edition – wooden box containing book and original glass negative
SOLD OUT
This book is the result of the artistic work of Alessandra Calò, who gathers and saves from oblivion a series of negatives depicting portraits of women without any biographical indication.
Inspired by herbariums and by the constant search for themes relevant to the “feminine,” the artist creates arboreal visions through those negatives, symbolizing the secret garden hidden inside of each one of us.
Each portrait acquires a new identity thanks to the involvement of contemporary female authors who were invited by the artist to write a short story inspired by one of those unknown figures.
The book is an intimate diary with great present-day relevance, made up of reality and imagination, where the emphasis is not on a clear and faithful reading anchored in the image, but rather social themes tied to the female figure and to the evolution of its changing condition through time.
The structure of the book mirrors the sense of the project, hiding gardens, symbols of the feminine universe, within double-bound pages. In its limited edition (ten copies), a box holds the book and one of the original negatives, depicting one of those anonymous women, portrayed in a garden.
Erik Kessels pens the introduction, considering the book «a unique work, which leaves to everyone the possibility of imagining its conclusion.»
SECRET GARDEN
2021, Danilo Montanari Editore
introduction text by Danilo Montanari
Cardboard box dimensions: cm 15,5x20cm
27 photos, 27 texts printed on vellum paper, english and italian version
Limited edition of 60
57 numbered and signed from 1 to 57
3 numbered and signed from I to III, wooden box containing book and original calotype
SOLD OUT
This book is the result of the artistic work of Alessandra Calò, who gathers and saves from oblivion a series of negatives depicting portraits of women without any biographical indication.
Inspired by herbariums and by the constant search for themes relevant to the “feminine,” the artist creates arboreal visions through those negatives, symbolizing the secret garden hidden inside of each one of us.
Each portrait acquires a new identity thanks to the involvement of contemporary female authors who were invited by the artist to write a short story inspired by one of those unknown figures.
The book is an intimate diary with great present-day relevance, made up of reality and imagination, where the emphasis is not on a clear and faithful reading anchored in the image, but rather social themes tied to the female figure and to the evolution of its changing condition through time.
The structure of the book mirrors the sense of the project: it linked gardens and womens in amazing surposition, kept in a black card that recalls the ancient negatives, and then protected by tissue paper that preserves the text.
In its limited edition (five copies), a box holds the book and one of the handmade calotype by artist, depicting one of those anonymous women, portrayed in a garden.
KOCHAN
2022,Danilo Montanari Editore
introduction text by Alessandra Calò
book dimensions: cm 32×22
pages 32
trade edition of 100 numbered and signed by artist
The structure of the book mirrors the sense of the project: an open atlas, without bindings, it is free to be leafed through or become a single page to be framed like a real artwork.
The trade edition (100 copies), a transparent plastic case holds the book
HERBARIUM
2022, Studiofaganel
Dimensions: 21.5 x 27.3 cm
pages 16
paper: Munken Polar Rough 300 g, Kraftpak 305 g
trade edition of 150 numbered and signed from 1 to 150 by artist
limited edition of 16 numbered and signed from I to XVI, containing an original fine art printed on Hawagami paper (27 x 21 cm)
In the book one of the distinctive features of Calò’s work is recognizable, the superimposition of different levels that create a unitary, harmonious, symbolic image.
In this case the artist has put together three different photographs: those of the hands, of the plants and of the writings.The hands are those of some frail people with whom Calò carried out a workshop that lasted four months, for a collaborative project commissioned by Culture Department of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. The plants, collected in the first phase of the laboratory, are not noble and well-kept plants, but those that are commonly defined “weeds”, referring to the concept of fragility / diversity understood as “what does not fall within the canons” and with the aim to discover the beauty of little things.
HERBARIUM is for Alessandra Calò a starting point to reflect on new ways of conceiving the image: in the representation of the gesture of care evoked by the protagonists, the imagined action becomes iconic and, thanks to the superimposition of the images, the ‘triggers a symbiosis between humanity and nature depicted.
The book is designed as a folder with images in 16 individual plates. Each folder has a photograph on the cover in which there is only the plant element: the choice fell on the fern, a highly resistant plant. Each of these photographs is printed by the artist, so each folder is different from the other, symbolizing biodiversity and neurodiversity.
THE GARDEN’S TALE
2023, Lab1930
introduction text by Lóránd Hegyi
Dimensions 20.5 x 25.5 cm
Pages 28
trade edition of 70 numbered and signed from 1 to 50 by artist
limited edition of 20 numbered and signed from I to XX the latter are accompanied by a Fine Art print on cotton paper ( 18 x 24 cm) not reproduced in the book and authenticated by the artist
“. . . The darkness forces the viewer to enter into the realm of something unknown and mysterious, into the territory of uncertainty and improbability. But this uncertainty opens paths in the darkness that guide the viewer to encounter unexperienced realities. It could also be said that the absence of light, which enables us to see real things in their real surroundings in real time, replaces the perception of the given world with the imagination of possible worlds. The less we see and recognize, the more we imagine and create in our mind. . . .
At the same time, the realm of intimacy does not lack references of collective, conventional narratives or motives from cultural contexts. On the contrary, we can witness an interesting intermingling of different images and fragments related to cultural historical contexts. In some images the arrangement of objects and the treatment of life in the subtle domestic interior scenes remind us of certain “grand painting” traditions from the seventeenth century, especially the still-life painting in the Netherlands; in other cases, some references to English landscape painting appear and combine with the details of the garden scenes captured in Alessandra Calò’s images. . . .
The less the light irradiates things, the more the recipient comprehends the essential life of things. The dark pages of Alessandra Calò’s subtle oeuvre The Garden’s Tale reveal this hidden, fragile, vulnerable, internal life in the realm of uncertainty. “
