{"id":100423,"date":"2020-08-18T11:24:50","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T09:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=100423"},"modified":"2020-08-20T09:41:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T07:41:35","slug":"rodolpho-parigi-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2020\/08\/18\/rodolpho-parigi-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodolpho Parigi: an interview with the virtuoso"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Rodolpho Parigi first came to prominence alongside a generation of painters that graduated from <a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.faap.br\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Armando \u00c1lvares Penteado<\/a> in the late 2000s \u2013 among them, Marina Rheingantz [<em><a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2015\/10\/28\/at-the-show-with-the-artist-marina-rheingantz-considerations-about-concrete-cuba-at-david-zwirner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> is the link to her contribution to CFA&#8217;s &#8216;At the show with the artist&#8217; section. Ed.<\/em>] and Ana Elisa\u00a0Egreja. Through a vivid aesthetic, the artist extracts lessons from nearly all art schools and techniques to create compositions that are unmistakably contemporary. Here he chats with CFA about\u00a0inspirations, virtuoses, Alter-Egos and influences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Looking at your practice, from the late 2000s to the present, one can easily identify \u2018phases\u2019 \u2013 an initial interest in geometry, followed by a more prominent figuration, with different degrees of realism and somehow more glossy in recent years. Your commitment to the study of colour, however, has been a constant thread \u2013 non-surprisingly, the majority of your work consists of paintings. This may be a tricky question, but what triggers you to move from one aesthetic pursuit to another? Is the path conscious, or before you realise it you\u2019re on it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: As far as I remember, I create from a desire that happens in the very process of painting and drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a visual, pictorial DJ, I make decisions, either towards something new, or intensifying things that re-occur in my practice. It always happens within the painting and the drawing. I\u2019d say it happens \u2018in-between\u2019, halfway consciousness and intuition, in an undecipherable place that is intrinsically connected to the \u2018knowhow\u2019, not to the understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2011_Popozinho_-1024x1412.jpg\" alt=\"Rodolpho Parigi\" data-id=\"100426\" class=\"wp-image-100426\"\/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Rodolpho Parigi, Popozinho, 2011, 76 x 56 cm, pencil on paper. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"821\" height=\"1159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2011_Magentagracejones-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"100445\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?attachment_id=100445\" class=\"wp-image-100445\"\/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Rodolpho Parigi, Magenta Grace Jones, 2011, 197 x 140 cm, pencil on paper. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2011_libelulismoime\u2560eme-1024x1027.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"100446\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2011_libelulismoime\u2560eme.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?attachment_id=100446\" class=\"wp-image-100446\"\/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Rodolpho Parigi, Libelulis mois meme, 2011, 140 x 140 cm, pencil on paper. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Another thread that runs through your practice seems to be your set of interests, or inspirational muses: the human body, art history, eroticism, botanics. That is, the elements that inform your work are a constant, what shifts is your approach to these themes. Can you talk a bit about what drives you to your subjects?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: Indeed, my muses, or motifs, are always the same, since I\u2019ve started nothing has changed on that matter, it only got more intense. I believe that I\u2019m always dealing with these subjects in a self-referential way, yet not as self-portraits. The various shapes that emerge in my work are part of a personal lexicon that I invented throughout the years and that I use as elements of pictorial construction. When I choose a form, or even a \u2018more abstract\u2019 section of the canvas, I\u2019m always thinking of the composition, and how that part will dialogue with the whole. I am a virtuoso, and though I can paint nearly everything that I can think of, it\u2019s often hard to choose what to depict. Thus my process is to eliminate things and concentrate on myself, on the subjects that I want to convey. Then it becomes simple, truthful and real, both for me and for the painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do you paint from photographs, live subjects, memory or a mix?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: My paintings are created through a confusion of complex processes. The starting point is always memory, followed by projection, printed photographs, then tridimensional models that I place in the studio and at times I also use an I Pad. I am mostly self-taught, but I\u2019ve attended several courses with people that thought and painted canvasses in very different ways; European classical painting teachers, academic painters from S\u00e3o Paulo, painters of Velatura and Alla Prima, observational painters and the contemporary ones at Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Armando \u00c1lvares Penteado and Museu de Arte Moderna de S\u00e3o Paulo [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2016\/03\/09\/interview-director-adriano-pedrosa-on-his-quest-to-make-masp-multiple-diverse-and-plural\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> is the link to our interview with MASP&#8217;s director Adriano Pedrosa. Ed.<\/em>]. It was in this mix that I\u2019ve started painting. A very Brazilian thing actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You mean Brazilian because of this amalgam of information?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: The amalgam of information, religion and heritage, is a Brazilian trait that has always called my attention. My maternal family comes from Florence whereas my paternal side comes from Porto, in Portugal. Both families came to Brazil in the beginning of the last Century and established themselves in S\u00e3o Paulo. So I was raised in an Italian\/ Portuguese\/ Brazilian environment, which I believe provided me with the mix of references that is evident in my art. My works are sort of filters of stories that I heard from friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2018_Volumen-Yoga-Molusco_-1024x1027.jpg\" alt=\"Rodolpho Parigi\" class=\"wp-image-100428\"\/><figcaption>Rodolpho Parigi, Yoga Molusco, 2018, oil on polyester, 153 x 153 cm. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve mentioned previously that you\u2019ve been drawing constantly since your early childhood. Yet you thought you\u2019d become a dancer, or performer, not an artist. Then at one point you gave life to a Trans woman called Fancy Violence. How did she come into being?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: I have always drew and danced quite a lot as a child. These were, and are, passions that accompany me. But when I came across painting and had access to the Prado museum aged 21, I felt in love with painting after encountering Rubens; I\u2019ve never stopped painting since. Fancy Violence is a drag-persona that became a sort of Alter Ego of the artist Rodolpho Parigi, not the individual. She existed for a short period of time, perhaps some five years between 2013 \u2013 18, and stirred the city (of S\u00e3o Paulo) in a rather violent and strong way. I made several performances in Brazilian institutions and independent venues. Her incarnations were time-based and nocturnal, with a duration of seven hours max. Yet the performance happens in life, beyond the walls of galleries and museums, even if it was born in such environments. She was the very happening, hence the short duration. Fancy is a tableau vivant, a character that I created as a painting\/ living sculpture. It was very liberating, and pleasant for me, she\u2019s a character that\u2019s closer to Batman, or to the X-Men, than to Marina Abramovich. Fancy exists in people\u2019s head, she\u2019s the subject of psychoanalysis, Marvel comics or the transgender universe. She chose to be born in the art world, and to die on it as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is Fancy dead? Do you feel like embodying another Alter Ego? For instance, as Fernando Pessoa had various pseudonyms. Or even Monster Chetwynd \u2013 n\u00e9e Alalia Chetwynd and who has previously signed Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: I always think of Fancy as another being. It\u2019s a persona, a different body, a different visual identity, different clothes, another life story\u2026 That is, she\u2019s closer to being another person than to being a pseudonym. It\u2019s another energy and presence. She exists in a mental plan and at times happens\/incarnates in reality. It\u2019s a mix of several references and desires that I\u2019ve had since childhood. I\u2019ll never embody another Alter Ego\/persona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2020_deliche_-1024x1441.jpg\" alt=\"Rodolpho Parigi\" class=\"wp-image-100429\"\/><figcaption>Rodolpho Parigi, Deliche, 2020, oil on canvas, 70 xd 50 cm. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How\u2019s your production during quarantine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: I am self-isolating for over four months. It\u2019s also good not to have a deadline to deliver or exhibit works, more time to establish an intimacy with the process of creating. I continue to paint daily. My studio is in a shed, separated from my house through a garden, which makes it a lot easier to work under the current circumstances. The painting inevitably shelters me as a protective cocoon and within it I solve questions regarding my existence and my desires. A free territory, a language which, as of the performance, I feel familiarised with. I spend a lot of time by myself, painting and thinking, the feeling that I get from painting is really positive. And the compositions got more gestural recently, halfway between figuration and abstraction. I started to intensify my gestures. They are calligraphic gestures, but the surface is more pictorial. The movement is there, there\u2019s rhythm to the images, which is something that I\u2019m often trying to convey with my canvases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2018_La-Danse_-1024x592.jpg\" alt=\"Rodolpho Parigi\" class=\"wp-image-100427\"\/><figcaption>Rodolpho Parigi, La danse, 2018, oil on canvas, 290 x 500. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>All your works have titles, some more literal ones, such as <em>Blue Head<\/em> (2019) or <em>Kusama Wig<\/em> (2018), others establishing a less-obvious relationship with the composition, like <em>Black Dimanche Saturday Metal <\/em>(2019) or <em>Olive Blanka Volumen<\/em> (2018). How does this process happens? Who\u2019s the chicken and who\u2019s the egg?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: In the great majority of times, the work precedes the title, but the theme is sometimes first. My works deal with a very personal mental universe which I express pictorially in drawings, collages and paintings \u2013 mostly. Although my aesthetic is rather contemporary, my creative process is grounded in the following traditional painting genres: portraiture; landscape; still-life; genre painting or scenes; historical themes; mythological themes; religious themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I\u2019m creating I mix genres, and through my \u2018way\u2019 or \u2018manner\u2019, I conceive the work, so everything has my \u2018style\u2019. I\u2019m a sort of filter for these genres. For me, everything is inserted in a broader history, a private universe, nearly a personal lexicon. It\u2019s about a self-referential work, not self-portrait. Therefore the chicken and the egg are on the same place. There\u2019s a good confusion in terms of parenthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two of my favourite artists are Shakespeare and Bowie, both of whom represented ideas in a very personal, yet strangely familiar and universal way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s a good link to our last question, which is a bit \u2018over-asked\u2019, yet offers an interesting insight to an artist\u2019s universe. If you could choose any work to have at home, what would that be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodolpho Parigi: Any sculpture by Jean Arp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rodolpho Parigi can paint whatever he wants. But the big problem, even for him, is choosing what is really worth representing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1797],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-dialogue-with"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}