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Estro
Via San Rocco Prosdocimo 30, 35139 Padova
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Italy
Tel.++39 049 8725487
Fax++39 049 8725487
Hours: Tue.-Sat. 4pm-7:30pm.
Contact: Elga Pellizzari
E-mail: estroarte@libero.it
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Francesco Impellizzeri Rinkoboy
In his performances and photographic works Francesco Impellizzeri puts himself on show and yet hides himself by adopting ironically glittering outfits and parodying various personalities. Impersonating a different character each time, Impellizzeri raises questions about male and female identity and the related issue of representation (and of its stereotypes). His inventions—such as Rinkoboy, Rokkodrillo, Madame ’700, Lady Muk, Angelo Candito, Tangentart, Unpopop, and BodyGuard —are compiled from collages of visual references extracted from a wealth of contemporary culture: films, comic strips, photo-stories, video clips, advertising, TV, and consumer products ranging from designer goods to everything-for-a-pound shops. As well as in these performances, Impellizzeri, echoing the “divine” Contessa di Castiglione—an icon who, in her own way, can be found in much of the artist’s current work—explores these themes through photography. Sickly-sweet, clear, and bright acid in color, the visual impact of Impellizzeri’s work is immense, the protagonists of these photographic fictions emerging from a vast expanses of accumulated images. Once again, it is the body of Impellizzeri himself that is put on show, unreservedly but in disguise. His outfits echo the glam-trash style of curious female characters that find their inspiration in the excessive costumes of Carmen Miranda, of the archetypal Pedro Almodovar woman, or of the more colorful characters in Stephan Elliot’s film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The artist’s caustic eye has picked up on these fantastical muses and icons, and given them a walk-on part in his pastiches of TV living rooms. It is here that the psychedelic, pseudo-technological Rinkoboy came to life. The perfect example of a boy who is seen in nightclubs, in fashion shows, and on the covers of trendy magazines, Rinkoboy is deceived into thinking that he can force his way out of his steady, middle-class environment by undergoing “sinful” plastic surgery. Yet he remains trapped within its whirring mechanism, the victim of an all too common ambition to make it as a model. As in all of Impellizzeri’s works, the set is dense with quotations and closely echoes advertising imagery. Yet, it makes an intentionally disrespectful nod in the direction of the most stereotypical, uninhibited, and glittering branch of the performing arts: namely, show business. First and foremost, however, by metamorphosing his own identity, Impellizzeri’s characters play on—exemplars of the right to experience themselves and others as events not foundations.
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Rinkoboy - catalogue
2000
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