Pia Pizzo was born in Italy, moved to California in 1982, and has been exploring the book as an art form since the early 1970s. She limits her palette to three colors: black, red, and white. She also uses gold, copper, and silver leaf to create pages illuminated with her abstract imagery.
One-of-a-kind Mind and Memory books
Pia Pizzo, artist statement: "The non-books or rather the non-readable books that I contemplate as extension of the perspective of both mind and memory set out to recount a happening, a state of affairs or a journey within the page or through the pages. The page is therefore the chosen setting for any hypothetical adventure you may embark upon or any hypothetical message you may be seeking: the blank page thus represents the virgin void of mental space. In this way the progressive cutting, this virtual inter-framing between one page and another, opens up upon the perspective against which and within which the mind can roam at will.
"The sequence of the pages, which act as the filters/screens of an unidentifiable complex machinery, unfolds with kinetic rhythm as you turn the pages, so these books become the arena within which to unwind your mind rather than the stage for grasping codified messages. The tearing of the paper is never the outcome of an aggressive approach but stems rather from studied feeling and touching, from physical contact with both the material and reality at the same time, as a step towards thinking once again in tactile terms....
"When I start a work of art, there is an empty space, a void, and I search how to balance form with emptiness, knowing when one has 'says' enough....
"The non-Books and pages without words or images are focused only on the light and shadows created in the empty spaces of their construction; they are composed with natural light which cause the pieces to vibrate as the light changes through the course of the day. As well as an awareness of the unknown fathoms of exploration, my work demands the music of silence." |
