{"id":7239,"date":"2025-05-20T21:15:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/20\/observer-arts-interviews-sculptor-arcangelo-sassolino\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T21:15:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:15:46","slug":"observer-arts-interviews-sculptor-arcangelo-sassolino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/20\/observer-arts-interviews-sculptor-arcangelo-sassolino\/","title":{"rendered":"Observer Arts Interviews: Sculptor Arcangelo Sassolino"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For Arcangelo Sassolino, unpredictability is not a glitch but a goal\u2014each piece holds the potential for transformation or collapse at any moment. Photo: Ginevra Formentini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are many good reasons to visit San Gimignano\u2014its medieval towers, sweeping Tuscan views, the perfect gelato\u2014but right now, one of the most compelling can be found in a luminous old cistern at the heart of the town. \u201cPresent Tense,\u201d the latest exhibition by Arcangelo Sassolino<\/a> at Galleria Continua, gathers new works that feel both elemental and precarious. Sculptures that move, drip and almost seem to breathe. At their core: oil, glass, steel and time.<\/p>\n

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Sassolino has long built his practice on the edges of mechanics and poetics. His materials are not simply chosen for their visual qualities but for their capacity to act: to fail, bend, crack or defy expectation. With a career spanning more than three decades and exhibitions at institutions like Palais de Tokyo, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and, most recently, the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Sassolino continues to challenge the static image of sculpture with work that is a choreography of instability and precision. A space where matter becomes metaphor.<\/p>\n

In \u201cPresent Tense,\u201d he pushes this even further. Fluids spill and settle, steel hovers above fragility and each moment threatens transformation. On a quiet morning, right after a bustling opening, Observer sat down with Sassolino to talk about the physics of presence, the seduction of unpredictability and why letting go might just be the ultimate creative act.<\/p>\n

What does \u2018present tense\u2019 mean to you?<\/b><\/p>\n

The title came out of a conversation with my studio manager, David, who\u2019s fantastic with language. We bounced ideas back and forth, and \u201cPresent Tense\u201d just felt right. It\u2019s simple, but sometimes that\u2019s what works best. The phrase resonates deeply with the work I\u2019m showing\u2014and with my broader approach to sculpture. I\u2019m drawn to the idea that something has to happen in real time while the viewer is present. I don\u2019t want to hide this intention. I\u2019m obsessed with the passage of time, so I work with materials in a way that they almost become time. The show speaks to this urgency, but also to the paradox: the present is already past by the time we acknowledge it. Like fluid, it slips away.<\/p>\n

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Sassolino\u2019s The constant matter<\/em> (2025) and No memory without loss<\/em> (2025). Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua, Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What can you tell me about the works on view?<\/b><\/p>\n

There are three main sculptures: rotating steel discs of varying diameters, each coated in industrial oil. This oil never dries. It remains thick, viscous and perpetually in motion. The discs spin continuously, and if they were to stop, the entire installation would collapse. Gravity pulls the oil downward, creating an ever-changing surface. No two moments are the same. It\u2019s a living image in constant flux.<\/p>\n

There are also more intimate pieces involving glass and weight. In one, a large granite stone rests on a jar. In another, a heavy steel block presses down on a bottle. These are works I\u2019m especially attached to. They may appear simple, even banal, but the tension they hold is real. The materials are under stress, and their vulnerability is not metaphorical\u2014it\u2019s physical.<\/p>\n

The tension in these pieces feels almost theatrical. Do you see them as performative?<\/b><\/p>\n

I like that idea. They are activated. For me, the work functions like a countdown. You don\u2019t know if it will last another five minutes or five hundred years. That ambiguity creates a real emotional response. There\u2019s a conflict embedded within the material itself, a constant potential for failure. But it\u2019s not just a symbolic gesture. I want that fragility to be factual, not fictional.<\/p>\n

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Arcangelo Sassolino, La forma dell\u2019attesa<\/em>, 2025; glass and stainless steel, 183 x 30 x 30 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua, Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What draws you to materials like oil, glass and steel?<\/b><\/p>\n

Throughout history, artists have tried to capture time using stable materials such as marble, bronze or wood. But fluids, especially industrial oil, are<\/i> time. The moment you release a liquid from a container, it starts moving. With these rotating discs, I\u2019ve given the oil the chance to be itself: unstable, mobile, unpredictable. It doesn\u2019t want to sit still. It wants to occupy space and shift form. That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m after. A composition that exists in real time, always transforming.<\/p>\n

Does your interest in steel have to do with its strength?<\/b><\/p>\n

Not exactly. I\u2019m more interested in what happens when materials are placed in impossible relationships. When you put three hundred kilos of steel on a glass bottle, you\u2019re pushing things to their limits. It\u2019s a question of friction, tension, incompatibility. That\u2019s where something meaningful reveals itself. When collapse feels imminent.<\/p>\n

Still, there<\/b>\u2019s a clear sense of control in your installations. How much room do you leave for unpredictability?<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a mix. Some works are carefully tested in the studio with engineers and technicians. We know their limits. But other pieces resist calculation. Their behavior can only be understood empirically, once they\u2019re installed in the exhibition space. Even then, things can shift. That uncertainty is crucial. Each time, there\u2019s a genuine possibility that something might happen\u2014or not.<\/p>\n

Do you enjoy that unpredictability?<\/b><\/p>\n

Very much. Life itself is unpredictable. We don\u2019t choose who we are from the start, and everything can change in an instant. My work needs to reflect that instability.<\/p>\n

What do you think is revealed when a system is under pressure?<\/b><\/p>\n

I believe the artist is like an antenna, picking up signals from the world around them. We absorb technology, science, politics and emotional currents. All of that filters into the work, often without conscious intention. I don\u2019t always create from a rational place. Sometimes I feel like a witness to my own mind, just watching ideas form and unfold. I\u2019m not trying to represent the world, but I can\u2019t help but reflect it. Artists can\u2019t escape their time\u2014they\u2019re products of it.<\/p>\n

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Arcangelo Sassolino, Impartial silence<\/em>, 2025; granite, glass and steel, 165 x 83 x 45 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua, Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some viewers have linked your work to the fragility of contemporary society. Is that a fair reading?<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not where I begin from, but I understand why people go there. Especially now, when everything feels uncertain, it\u2019s easy to see these precarious objects as metaphors for social collapse. I\u2019m not trying to illustrate that concept directly, but if the work evokes those feelings, I welcome it. The work is already a subject in itself. It doesn\u2019t need to be explained.<\/p>\n

You<\/b>\u2019ve said that art is about shaping the future. How do you see your role as an artist in this moment?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure artists are necessarily ahead of their time, but I do think we have a unique ability to condense the present into form. That said, I do feel a responsibility to push forward, to move beyond tradition, even the rich tradition of Italian art I come from. The challenge is to find new solutions, embrace new technologies and produce forms that make sense in today\u2019s world. The chaos and instability in these fluid works mirror the world we\u2019re living in. That\u2019s not intentional, but it\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

What did you have to let go of to arrive at \u201cPresent Tense?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Letting go is crucial\u2014for artists and people in general. One of the works in the show is titled No Memory Without Loss<\/i>. It\u2019s about the idea that in order to remember, you must also lose something. One part of the sculpture remains intact, but another part drips away. It\u2019s a form of disappearance.<\/p>\n

To move forward, I\u2019ve had to release past ideas and open myself to new possibilities. I honor my journey, but I believe that letting go is the most constructive way to face the future.<\/p>\n

Arcangelo Sassolino\u2019s \u201c<\/b>Present Tense<\/b><\/a>\u201d is on view at Galleria Continua through August 31, 2025.<\/b><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Arcangelo<\/p><\/div>\n