Roman Laundry

Laundry hanging out over the street, so much the italian cliche....  Maybe more reality than cliche, celebrated in paintings from Canaletto and Tintoretto on down through 19th century genre scenes, it just comes with the scenery. 

While in Rome, I find that I do a lot of drawing; not just carry the sketch pad around sort of thing, though I do do that, but also working in larger scale formats.  Laundry and drapery is ubiquitious here.  I love looking at drapery on antique marble fragments - it still feels so fresh, hanging off two thousand year old toned bodies, or blown by a long ago invisible wind.  I began doing drawings of them on the kitchen floor, and hanging them up on my clothesline.



Christopher Pelley   "Roman Laundry"   dimensions variable



It's Our Pleasure to Serve You

VIZIVAROSI GALLERY, BUDAPEST
june - july 2010

I moved to New York 20 years ago, and I have lived in and been fascinated by this city ever since.

One of the first iconic NYC images to grab my attention was the ubiquitous take-out coffee cup. It was blue and white and featured an image of a classical greek sculpture, the discobolus, his nudity covered by some type of gladiatorial skirt. A little design suggestive of architectural moulding ringed the top and the bottom of the cup, and what appeared to be an olympic flame stood next to him. The back side of the cup said "It's Our Pleasure to Serve You".

Christopher Pelley, from "6 Cups Recto/Verso" 2010 digital photo

This little disposable cup has come to represent for me the unique cultural engine that is New York. The City is a voracious consumer of differing national identities and cultural heritages which become synthesized into the fabric of daily life on a scale unparalelled in the world. This bit of NYC ephemera also represents for me some core concepts of my work as an artist: the persistence of imagery across the centuries, and the profound influence of the past on the present.

The temporary installation at the Vizivarosi Gallery took approximately 2500 2.5" x 2.5" painted squares of paper to form the lo rez digital image.

John Balian, the Cultural Attache to the American Embassy in Budapest, did the honors of speaking at the opening of the exhibit, along with Beata Szechy, Director of the Hungarian Multicultural Center.

John Balian and Christopher Pelley

stairs / Piazza di S Apollonia 3, Roma

Transitioning from light to dark to light and from public to private, I am beginning to notice that stairs here in Roma are truly sculpture. These worn steps undulating like gentle waves speak of the countless thousands of people who have preceeded me along this passage way as I leave the daylight of Piazza di S Apollonia behind and head up to the apartment

Domocile Pelley a Roma

I have packed up my paints in NYC for the time being, and I'm currently settling into my new space in Rome. It's a bit on the palatial side, but immensely enjoyable. The dinging of the bells every quarter hour from the nearby Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere (reputed to be one of the oldest churches in Rome, founded in the 3rd century - its current incarnation dates predominantly from the 12th century) gently reminds me of my change of locale. As if I need to be reminded.