Walls

A wall in Roma is never just a wall - life here isnt that simple. A wall is so much more than a wall - it is a conversation between the centuries.  The brown grey volcanic tufa favored during the republican period, brick and marble of the imperial epoch, the rubble of the late antique and middle ages, the applied fantasies of the baroque and then brick again with travertine from the Fascist era form a sort of haphazard stratigraphy .  The scars of hopes, desires, tastes and trends are etched on the surface for all to see - if you choose to look.  Doorways and windows have come and gone.  A fragment of a gothic arch, traced only by an outline of brick, pushed aside for a more modern intervention sits on top of a truly robust roman arch.  The walls endure and adapt like so much aluvium piled high.  Here, the erasure of time hasnt fully succeded. 

Sometimes I stand silently nearby and try to listen to the conversation.



St Valentine

It is mid February, and I stumbled upon the earthly remains of a Saint Valentine in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin here in Roma.  I wondered if it was him.  I started to search and found out that there were at least 3 (and possibly as many as 14) St Valentines with remains in reliquaries across Europe.  The legend of the St Valentine - the focal point of our annual Hallmark hysteria, (which is totally absent here in Rome... I guess when you are surrounded by putti and erotes 24/7 you dont feel the need to hang red paper ones on February 14), is mired in the murkiness of legend and myth.  He was actually removed from the official Catholic Calendar of Saints back in 1969.  Valentine's feast day was originally placed on that Calendar by Pope Galasius I in 496 to supersede the suppressed festival of Lupercalia.
 

Lupercalia?  OK, my interest was piqued.  Could this have anything to do with Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome?  The Lupercal was, after all, the sacred spot marking the cave where the twins were suckled by the she-wolf.  The short answer is yes.  But by the late 5th century AD, Lupercalia probably had about as much to do with Romulus and Remus and Rome as Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Rio de Janiero has to do with Lent.  Digging deeper (and a few more google searches)  I found that the festival of the Lupercalia originally involved a sacrifice of 2 goats and a dog, then 2 young men, annointed, wearing the skins of said goats ran around the Palatine hill, tracing the original walls of the city, ceremoniously striking bystanders (esp women and girls) with strips of goat skin (also from the above mentioned goats) called februa.  The meaning of all this is up for discussion.  Naked young men in goatskin loincloths aside, was it a purification ritual?  A fertility rite?  A commemoration of the founding of the city of Rome?  A celebration of the civilising force (control) of the City over a  hunter-gatherer society?  Some, or all of the above?  Nobody really knows.

In the end, I returned to Santa Maria in Cosmedin and lit a candle in front of that box of bones.  (When in Rome...).  I'm a sucker for a good myth.

Spolia

Spolia.  I love the stuff.  Originally the latin term meant war booty or plunder, but in architectural terms it has come to mean the reuse of older building material.  It is everywhere in Rome.  Those mis-matched columns and capitals lining the naves of medieval basilicas came from an array of imperial era buildings.  That fountain basin was once a 2nd century AD sarcophagus.  The marble for the late 17th century fountain of the Acqua Paola on the Janiculum came from the Temple of Minerva that was in the Foro of Nerva.  Often while walking I will see an ionic volute, or a bit of  architrave in white marble peeking out amongst the other bits of rubble in a wall of unknown date.  For me it is myth and mystery made manifest.  How can I not be influenced?



Christopher Pelley "Volutes"  oil/canvas  100cm x120cm  2010

Christopher Pelley  "Ionic Volutes"  oil/canvas  100cm x 100cm  2010



Mixed Feelings in NYC

Back in NYC this fall, it was very much about the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 next year.  Has it been that long?  The gaping hole in the skyline is starting to be filled, but the memories and emotions are still fresh and raw.  Returning from Rome, I had to confront mixed feelings.  When in Rome, one always sees women from a variety of Catholic religious orders on the streets, their veils flowing as they jostle among the crowds.  It makes me smile; my heart is flooded with remembrances of parochial grade school.  Back in my Jackson Heights neighborhood in New York, I was shocked to witness the statistically significant uptick in the number of girls wearing the hijab and women in full burkas.  There is a shift in the 'hood.  Ganesha is giving way to the Quaran.  I was surprised by my reaction of shock mixed with a twinge of fear.  Why?  It's only drapery. 

Christopher Pelley  "Hijab"  oil/canvas  60"x66"  2010

 

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