Untitled

Pier Paolo Calzolari was initially affiliated with the Arte Povera (Poor or Impoverished Art) movement in Italy, which, was comprised of artists who aligned themselves with the socio-political and artistic upheavals of 1967–69. Refusing a defined, static style, stressing the need for art to be involved in real life with living substances, and demonstrating a commitment to constant change and experimentation, these artists used unconventional materials in an attempt to make the experience of art more immediately real. Calzolari’s early sculptural work often combines ephemeral organic materials—tobacco leaves, rose petals, feathers, moss, ice, and even flames—with technological ones, such as metal and neon, to reveal the conflict between the natural and the man-made. Here the Italian phrase, which translates as “In my 25th year,” adds an open-ended statement about the artist’s age to the spiral shape and tobacco leaves, which intimate a state of transformation.