I was born in Turin in June 1971. My creativity is fueled by imagination, curiosity, constant research, and introspection. Each of my works stems from the desire to explore realms where emotions, ideas, and materials intertwine in a relentless dialogue. My canvas creations are distinguished by the addition of hand rolled paper in relief, which comes to life at the center of chromatic compositions where each color blends seamlessly into the next. The layered, intentional, and balanced tones generate dynamics that oscillate between order and unexpected geometries. At the same time, my passion for photographic and filmed performances represents another dimension of my artistic journey. Through these visual explorations, I investigate ever evolving and shifting identities. I wear wigs, create bold looks, and continuously experiment with new scenarios using self-made sets, accessories, costumes, and makeup. Each image becomes a complex portrait not only of who I am but also of who I could or would like to be an infinite repertoire of possibilities that I have already begun to develop and intend to further explore with dedication and perseverance. In these performances, the private and public dimensions merge, revealing versions of myself that fluctuate between the real, the imagined, and the introspective. Each creative act never represents a final destination but rather an intermediate step an opening towards new paths of exploration.
The process of creating these photographic self-portraits is, for me, both a fun game and a serious, deliberate exploration, through which I've learned to further love and appreciate my face and body. Each pose is also a direct and immediate way to archive evidence of who I am.
Out of curiosity, I gave my hair a new look, abandoning a long standing aesthetic habit. In the mirror and in the photos I take of myself, I discovered a new Erica. An aspect of myself that perhaps I didn't know I had long ignored. As if my new look had always been there waiting for me, to bring me back to light.
I transform myself, day after day, seeing myself wearing clothes that I already own or that the convenience of online shopping has made finding them almost a game. And it doesn't matter if I go out or leave the house. The simple act of trying on clothes makes me feel alive and allows me to express my creativity through a playful relationship with the fabric and its colors. I confront myself, as if I were playing chess with my femininity.
The morning shower can represent one of those clear boundaries between sleep and wakefulness. A moment that allows you to disconnect from the dream dimension and come into contact with reality. The ancestral ritual of bathing awakens concentration and encourages productivity in subsequent activities. Feeling the water flow over your body, everywhere, makes you imagine that you have granted it intimate confidence.
Even the unexpected, unplanned, or casual photo can capture forever a digital copy of me, which in the future I will be able to observe, bypassing the ambiguity of age. For all these selfies, I like to lose myself in jokes, smiles, and glances. There are many ways to be free, and I have found one. Talking to myself about myself.
My versatility extends beyond the mere presentation of facial or anatomical themes and also lies in the desire to highlight the physiognomy in its implicit nuances. When I decide to be Erica, I am simultaneously all the Ericas I want to be.
I don't obsessively pursue complete control of light and shadows. While trying to present the best, artistically, I'm not afraid to make common mistakes, such as overexposure or focus problems. This approach guarantees results that harmonize my games, with my fidelity to a natural and traditional aesthetic, a solid base to be able to decide, if I wish, to be everything else as well.
The small square is now illuminated by the light of the street lamps, as the neighborhood is falling asleep. A couple of steps towards the cigarette machine allow a contact, albeit fleeting, with the outside world, at a time when the sun has set, hiding behind the planet with one of its most feared children, the heat. The vending machine, after reflecting its artificial light in my glasses, watched me go back home.
Here I am, refueling at the self-service gas station. Keyboard, lights, LEDs, display, and buttons, with a myriad of options that currently leave me perplexed. The refueling begins. It feels like I'm holding a weapon, a big gun, and after stretching the flexible rubber hose, I feed my car. And the tank resumes smiling, bidding farewell for a few days to its friend the reserve, who temporarily departs. Perhaps the engines made of bolts, gaskets, cables, and mechanics, which need fuel, oil, and water, have had their time. But I will never forget my little car that took me to a thousand places.
I find valuable artistic collaborators in reflective surfaces. In glass, mirrors, puddles, my image seems like an alter ego suspended in an inaccessible dimension. I see a twin of mine, undefined in contours and details. And in this apparently elusive nature lies the attraction. I create selfies, both casual and artistic. Mirroring is sometimes an impartial mediator between me and my vanity. While a metal, cold and shiny, makes me almost a sculpture that seems digital. And mirroring myself in the water, I could come out moved while remaining still.
After certain nights, I unveil the authentic face of my early morning. Photographs that capture those moments when my face, temporarily stylized by sleep, surrenders to the typical expressions of awakening. Exposing myself, without filters, after a restful sleep, provides me with a further opportunity to show my intimate friendship with the REM phase. The morning face reflects my pure essence, while during the day, I can choose to rework it to satisfy my aesthetic aspirations.
Non necessariamente per arte concettuale o documentazione personale lo faccio, ma fotografarmi il corpo mi offre intime possibilità di osservare attentamente anche sezioni alle quali non ho mai dato attenzione o che non ho voluto vedere. Se fermo in un'immagine dettagli specifici, scopro o ricordo però come sono. Scopro o ricordo se mi piaccio o no.
Il mio gatto si inserisce nei progetti: una pelosa parentesi strategica tra una mia espressione e l’altra. Un sabotatore concettuale: quando mi immagino in bianco e nero la fotocamera lo riprende nei suoi colori. Quando cerco il volto espressivo, per dispetto si stira e sbadiglia. Il titolo del suo manifesto artistico è Non Me Ne Frega Niente Ma Lo Faccio. A volte sembra infatti che non si inserisca per caso. Che lo faccia apposta. Che abbia compreso il mio progetto performativo e deciso che secondo lui manca un qualcosa: e così interviene. Un micio minimalista. Non crea. Non distrugge. Interferisce con la sua elaborata indifferenza.
In my frontal portraits, I seek a balance between spontaneity and creative expression. I do not pursue obsessive control over light and shadow, as I believe that excessively rigid technical precision annihilates the true essence of an image. I embrace with amusement the natural emergence of photographic imperfections, whether in composition or focus. What is typically considered a flaw in photography often enhances its accidental realism, contributing to a more authentic representation that aligns perfectly with my artistic pursuit. I focus more on capturing the essence of a moment rather than striving for an almost mechanical visual perfection. Through my images, my goal is to reveal myself without compromise.
I embark on a personal journey through the intimacy of outward appearance, highlighting the natural state of aesthetic vulnerability. I capture moments when my features still bear traces of sleep, when my hair is tousled, or my eyes are half closed as I gradually adjust to the morning light. The objects around me, in this context, also take on symbolic meaning: a freshly made cup of tea or coffee, rumpled sheets, or the disarray of a room not yet touched by the rhythm of the day. Each object becomes part of a silent language, contextualizing an experience that belongs as much to my body as to my mind, in an intimate dialogue with the everyday. The goal is not to create traditional selfies destined to be shown and validated by an external gaze, but rather a series of self-portraits that narrate the story of my physical self during a moment of transition between private naturalness and the self prepared for the public eye. These self-portraits reveal a deeper and more contemplative dimension, capturing my essence without filters, an essence that does not seek to impress, but simply to exist. After all, photography is also a way to enter into dialogue with oneself, to observe one's face as a mirror that reflects not only the outward appearance, but also the mood, the fatigue, or the weight of awakening. Perhaps, in these fleeting moments of the early morning, I can capture a fragment of physical truth that tends to escape me throughout the rest of the day.
INTROSPECTION OF MY LATEST CREATION
Two objects represent a very specific message: two mirrors, one square and one round, with three colors inside: black, white and fuchsia. The call is very strong. My reflection asks me a question: what do you perceive when you see these three colors reflected in the mirror? I answer that black speaks of my dark and painful past. White indicates rebirth and the return to my freedom of expression. And finally fuchsia, which is my rediscovered femininity; my feeling more alive than ever.
LE MIE FOTOGRAFIE
MY ARTISTIC OBJECTS
I have created a version of myself wearing a beautiful blue dress, adorned with delicate little flowers in just three colors: yellow, orange, and white. I am seated on a golden egg, which symbolizes who I am today. For a long time, I remained inside this golden egg, trapped in my darkest thoughts, a version of myself that longed to break free but couldn't. The egg finally cracked open when I found the courage I had lost and reached a new awareness. Now, I see myself sitting on it, like a queen on her throne, with a proud and confident gaze—radiant, happy, and shining with my own light. The blue dress represents emotions, the yellow and orange flowers symbolize our favorite colors, and the white signifies the couple, the union.
Queste tre collane colorate, le ho realizzate in diverse misure, sono state create con il DAS e poi dipinte con colori acrilici, ispirate a un ricordo lontano della mia infanzia. Sotto i portici, di fronte a casa mia, c'era un negozio di alimentari, e all'ingresso, sulla sinistra, un distributore di cicche rotonde colorate. Quando le masticavi, oltre a ritrovarti con la lingua colorata, risultavano anche dure come il marmo. Ricordo molto bene il momento in cui inserivo la monetina e giravo la manovella, un gesto che mi divertiva enormemente.
ANCESTRAL QUANTUM
It's intriguing to reconcile ancestral roots and a practical education acquired in a pre-internet era with a near future dominated by quantum innovations and artificial intelligence. Today, black and white feels like an ancient visual dialect rarely spoken but still capable of conveying a timeless simplicity that transcends the ages. While I appreciate the transition to a hyperconnected reality, where images and experiences burst into a kaleidoscope of virtual overstimulation, I can't help but feel nostalgic for a time when life's pace was inherently and humanly slower. The beauty of black-and-white imagery lies not only in its ability to evoke a past that seems to slip further from even the most vivid senses, but also in its unique way of stripping an image down to its very essence. Every time I take photos with my smartphone, I often feel compelled to give them a tangible, physical form by printing them on paper. Paper provides digital images with substance, weight, and presence. Printing a photograph, to me, is about granting it a sense of permanence ensuring it cannot be erased by a careless click or rendered inaccessible due to a lost connection. For me, paper and black and white remain bridges, linking the dizzying speed of the present to a past I refuse to forget. Progress shouldn't mean losing life's simple treasures but rather preserving and keeping them meaningful, even in the face of changing contexts.
La sigaretta, un tempo associata a determinate tipologie di personalità, oppure a oggetto di piacere comune, con le inevitabili controversie correlate alla salute, ha assunto nel corso della storia un ruolo significativo nell'arte fotografica e in quella cinematografica, d'autore e non, divenendo un simbolo versatile anche di stile e introspezione. Dalle prime immagini in bianco e nero, fino alle sofisticate composizioni contemporanee, è stata utilizzata spesso per creare l'idea di una tensione visiva o di un riflessivo relax. Il suo stesso fumo è stato più volte immortalato a creare un'atmosfera da intuire e da interpretare. Per alcuni giovanissimi è stato uno dei passi verso un'immaginaria ribellione, verso un'idealizzata emancipazione, o ha dato loro l'idea di essere improvvisamente più adulti. Nei primi film in bianco e nero, la sigaretta ha indicato anche eleganza e raffinatezza. Numerosi sono i ritratti, ad esempio, di attori e attrici della vecchia Hollywood, con una sigaretta tra le dita, presentata tra scene glamour o di seduzione. A volte, se ben presentate, le immagini di persone che fumano trasmettono ipotesi di un contesto anche emotivo. La sigaretta non appare mai come un elemento casuale, nemmeno se mostrata in momenti tipici e comuni del quotidiano, e rimane tutt'oggi, in immagini fisse, dettaglio centrale e protagonista.
