Scope Hamptons 2006

PRECIOUS CACHE

A proposal by Agró/Glickman STEP (1) for a curated show at Scope Hamptons 2006.

For this year’s scopeHamptons, Agró/Glickman STEP (1) is proposing a third curated Scope art fair booth, entitled Precious Cache.

Like their two previous ones – Three Players of a Summer Game and Paradoxical Landscapes -- Precious Cache will feature the works of four artists who all have a different take on a common theme.  In this case, it’s the idea of valuables that are both obvious and hidden.  In fact, the word “cache” is a play on words that incorporates all of these things: there’s the original meaning of cache as a collection or reserve; cache’ (with the accent over the “e”) with the French meaning of hidden, and then finally, the word’s homonym, cash.

In the case of Neapolitan Betty Bee’s work, all of her images, be they prosaic (like ice cream cones or flowers) or profane (like the reproductions of the sex positions found on the walls of Pompeii), have a “protective” layer of gold lattice, that both confers a measure of innocence to the subject being portrayed and a signal to the viewer of the preciousness of what he/she is seeing. 

Michael Counts, from NYC, takes the idea of hidden treasure to an even greater, more obvious level. The extraordinary value of his work is only known when the box is opened.  Otherwise, it’s just a curios flea market antique….once the lid is lifted, however, the magic of a whole theater scene in miniature is revealed…and the viewer is transported to this exquisite, Lilliputian world.

Nicola Bolla, on the other hand, hides nothing of the costliness of the works he creates.  The Svarovski crystal encrusted figures are almost obscenely opulent.  Dripping with all these sparkling crystals, the sculptures dazzle the viewer with their inherent beauty and virtuosity.  With him, the “hidden” aspect lies more in the paradoxical nature of the subject choices he makes…that is, the juxtaposition of the macabre or deadly (e.g. a skull or a noose) with the lavishness of the crystal he’s using.

The small paintings from the series entitled Precious Cache were specifically created by Cosimo Di Leo Ricatto for the ScopeHamptons 2006 art fair.  They are an evolution of the Suspended series on which the artist has been working on since 2000.  As Di Leo Ricatto says “The series Suspended was born from the desire to communicate more, the will to have people understand me at all costs”.  It was initially conceived as a meditation on literary sources such as Roussel’s texts and John Cage’s Mesostics, then became an expression of random words and thoughts, composing an ironic commentary on the art world, then elaborated into a playful pop language.

In Precious Cache the artist takes the concept one step further combining words such as money, price, desire, value and profit with images that become symbols of those economics terms such as a sparkling diamond and a golden ring.