I had this idea back in college to somehow create a visual hand gestures vocabulary to describe the many hand signs and symbology of Italian culture. I had originally wanted to make small etchings, however aside from a few ink pen sketches it never took off and instead I extended the theme to be included in my “IncontriirtnocS” series: Twenty-three life-size portraits – charcoal on raw loose canvas – of friends captured in different body positions suggesting postural communication typical of Italian culture, which ended up being the fulcrum of my graduation thesis. A few years passed, yet once ideas are seeded they keep on growing in the unconscious until the passenger is ready. In 2015, I started experimenting with hand signs and gestures, replicating and mirroring them. Flip, flop and the whole lot. This is how the Handjobs series was born. A play on words on the act of masturbation, in this case of the cerebral type but also about hands with a job to do. Namely to raise awareness of specific themes such as: love, strength, melancholy, failure, purpose, hope and peace, amongst others.
To see more Handjobs click here.
“Love and hate are just two sides of the same coin. But with love something very drastic has happened. It is unimaginable how this drastic step was taken by people who had all the good intentions in the world. You may never have even suspected what has destroyed love. It is the continuous teaching of love that has destroyed it. Hate is still pure – love is not. When you hate, your hate has an authenticity. When you love, it is only hypocrisy. This has to be understood. For thousands of years, all the religions, politicians, pedagogues have been teaching one thing, and that one thing is love. Love your enemy. Love your neighbour. Love your parents. Love God. Why in the beginning did they start this strange series of teachings around love? They were afraid of your authentic love. Because authentic love is beyond your control. You are possessed by it. You are not the possessor, you are the possessed. And the society wants you to be under control. The society is afraid of your wild nature. It is afraid of your naturalness. So from the very beginning it starts cutting your wings. And the most basic thing that is dangerous in you is the possibility of love. Because if you are possessed by love, you can go even against the whole world.”
Osho