Untitled 133 2010

Editor: This is Carl Chiarenza’s "Untitled 133" from 2010, a mixed-media collage incorporating photography. It strikes me as a chaotic landscape made of fragments. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Chaotic, yes, like the remnants of a dream, or maybe a waking nightmare rendered in shades of grey. Chiarenza, ever the alchemist, transforms discarded scraps into potent visual poetry. Think of him rummaging, rescuing forgotten images like a magpie building a nest from our collective discards. Notice how the textures clash—smooth, reflective surfaces against pixelated noise. Does it evoke a sense of unease in you? Editor: It does feel unsettling. Like something broken, trying to be whole. Curator: Precisely. These aren’t just random fragments; they're carefully orchestrated. It's almost sculptural, wouldn't you say? It’s pushing photography to its absolute limits, almost beyond recognition. There’s a push and pull between destruction and creation, a tension that holds your gaze. I wonder what personal ghosts he's exorcising, assembling this phantasmagoria... Editor: So, the abstraction isn’t just about form, but about personal expression? Curator: Absolutely! The personal *is* the political, even in abstraction. Chiarenza is channeling his inner turmoil onto paper, making something beautiful and thought-provoking from chaos. Art as therapy, maybe? He leaves breadcrumbs, clues… Do we dare to follow them? Editor: It makes me look at collage differently, not just as pretty patterns, but as loaded visual statements. Curator: Exactly! He’s reminding us that art can be both beautiful and deeply unsettling, like life itself, and maybe that’s the point of these artists' personal explorations. I think I will visit his catalog to dive in some more!