IGNORANCE1
Ignorance1 work revolves around the graphic styles that characterised the rave music scene during the 80s and 90s. Modern graphic elements are combined to classic patterns and styles so the pieces keep a vintage mood while getting a unique contemporary twist.
The word ‘ACID’ is quite recurrent in many of the pieces. This particular word gets inserted in different artistic contexts and explored based on the different meanings it can have in those contexts. Acid is a flavour, a music current, a journey, an emotional state. “Not sad but not happy, JUST ACID” is a quote that appears on some of the works and it’s just one example of using the concept to define a particular emotional context with a touch of irony.
How would you define your style?
Not sad, not happy, just acid.
What is customization for you?
Personalization for me, although it may seem trivial, is to make anything personal.
In my case I enjoy doing it in a fairly “freestyle” way, treating the object or the garment as if it was a blank piece of paper.
Not sad, not happy, just acid.
How much do you love Milan and what does it have more than other cities?
For years I had a constant relationship with Milan made of love and hate, but at the end of the day I can only be extremely grateful for the many opportunities it offers from a creative and professional point of view. One characteristic that only Milan has is that, after so many years, is still full of hidden places that you need to discovered.
What inspired you to customize the Jumpsuit?
To customize the Jumpsuit I just mixed my style with the raw and naked workwear flavour of the mechanical workshops.
How did you make it?
First of all I used spray and markers to customize the patches: some of them are totally customized on the back and some others on the front. Then I worked directly on the Jumpsuit fabric, spreading sentences and messages around the garment’s surface.
The logo rip-offs borrowed from the racing world are among your favorite subjects: Shell, Agip, Michelin and Pirelli to name a few. Do you have a passion for the automotive universe or are you simply fascinated by the graphic part of those brands?
The old workshops have always been a great inspiration for me.
With my father, a great car enthusiast, I visited a lot of them since I was a child and I was struck by all that microcosm of vintage plates, calendars and merchandising of automotive brands.
Last year, during one of my exhibitions, I had the chance to make one of my rip-offs on a real steel plate.
Even today I am still fascinated by the graphics of this sector and it seems incredible the way they are so suitable to be stretched and reworked.
Tell us how one of these rip-offs was born
The first rip off in the motor world was Michelin’s Bibendum, which I added a second sad head next to his classic smiling one. It was an experiment like many others, but it was immediately very appreciated. From there I started using my claim “not sad not happy just acid”.
The rest of the rip-offs instead are usually born looking at the “official” reference, trying to understand how my graphic codes and concepts that I use can be fitted, often everything happens in a very spontaneous and natural way.
