Reality and Imag – in – ation
By Matteo Sica an artist and writer
As I woke up this morning in my atelier, a very bright
splash of summer sunlight rays was cast on a painting of mine placed on the
floor, by the wall opposite my bed. The already hot sun, through the large
three-pane old double windows, became a sharp patch of strongly highlighted colours on the artwork,
and left in the shadow the remaining parts not engulfed by any light. These sunrays
would then take a bend and swerve away from the canvas streaming on right on
the wooden floor beneath. Finally, they dissolved briefly after because of the
presence of a huge tree in front of my house and its thick green leaves. So,
this flickering moment I captured on the photos you can see here. What really
strikes me now looking at it is that the light originated by the sun hits my
painting, which is the fruit of my creativity, it highlights parts of it, and
then it flows on onto the floor (created by some other creator) and in all this
my mind perceived some sort of “knot” or binding between imagination and
reality. As if this streak of light temporarily tied together to itself the
worlds of imagination, of creative products (such as my painting), and the
floor. The floor in this photo feels real more than anything else. It’s the
basis for many acts of “solidity”, of many solid actions in our upright
standing three-dimensional daily lives. We walk on it, we even think on it. In
choosing the title “reality and Imag – in – ation” for this photo, I started
thinking whether imagination is really so distant and separate from reality or
whether it’s actually an inherent part of it, like a “mitochondrial energetic
engine” (I like to play with unusual metaphors, I hope you do, too!) of reality
creation. And the answer is obvious to many who see the connection between
arts, creativity, thought, science, vision: everything we create in the time
space physical reality was before an idea. So Imag – in – ation, image – in
– action, it made me also think about the word “magic”, image, i-magic, and
so on. “Magic”, was, in a sense, a general way for saying “making things out of
thin air”. Well, on creating… let’s think of an electronical device, like a
computer, which under our clicking fingers feels pretty concrete to us, very “created”
and solidly a part of “the creation”, …it was a drawing before, wasn’t it, so a two dimensional thing. And even before
it was an idea. And perhaps, even before it was just an emotion, just a wish
to… make something, to make something new. So imagination and reality are on a
continuum spectrum to me, just like shadow and light are on a continuum in a
semi-lit atelier. While some sun rays shine very brightly where they are let
free to transit through the windows, they then become less intense when some
foliage blocks parts of them. Somewhere else in my painting studio, they accentuate
some colours more than others. Then they are also stopped, limited within darker
shadows, because of other objects coming into play and interacting with the
light phenomenon. So imag – in – ation, image – in – action, in the word itself
we have probably the solution that reveals the connection between ideas – as
the unit measure or building blocks of imagination -, and creation and that is:
action! So images in action. Images in action?!? All the time, we take images, we
act upon them so that they can become reality. So our magic, is to transform
images into creations, through action. Another time I’ll look at the etymology
of some closely related words, such as “transition” or trans – form –ation, so
trans – form – action. And then one more stimuli comes to my mind, which is the
Italian word for “border”: “il confine”. Look at the photos again and see that
there is a clear border between the canvas of my painting and the floor. Also
between the strong shadows and the brightly lit colours. This “confine” may
appear as a line that strongly divides the world of imagination (and ideas) and
the “solid” world of creation, or created, the reality, the “solidity”, the
physical space. The Italian word “il confine” is made of two words “con” +
“fine”, which means “with end”. That can also be understood as a “common end”, where
two realities or two... – ah! it’s hard to call imagination a
reality -, but let’s say two aspects of the perception of our existence,
have a common end, so that they end in the same place, which means that they do
meet rather than being sharply separated. And if they “end together”, they
may also originate together, they may be together all along the way. I feel that
imagination and reality are on a continuum: imagination is the engine of
reality - that’s quite obvious, every new project, solution, artwork or “thing”
must be thought of, and we think in images. Yet, what really makes the very event
happen is… the light. The light that allowed this photo. The light that allows
my reflections. And the light that also brought a possible philosophical
solution, or interpretation or explanation. Ah, such an en-light-ening summer
time in my painting atelier.
Check Matteo Sica artwork on Instagram: @mattecolourwave
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