A versatile artist from Turin, Alessandro Sciaraffa has chosen the refinement of the large ultra-thin slabs by Fiandre Architectural Surfaces to produce the interactive work “Sea Shadows.” The artist has utilized ceramic slabs from the collections Graniti Maximum, Pietre Maximum and Datauni Maximum to create the evocative work set up in Rome, inside the Chiostro del Bramante, as part of the group show “Emotion: contemporary art narrates feelings,” curated by Danilo Eccher.
The artist has conducted research on sound for this intriguing dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of the cloister, creating an engaging experience. The installation allows visitors to interact with the enormous suspended ceramic slabs that reproduce the sound of the sea. Through a series of sensors, visitors can experiment with their shadows to generate the sound of waves, in a unique, personal experience.
Measuring 2 x 1 m, by a thickness of 6 mm, each slab generates a different sonic response: the first is from the collection Graniti Maximum, which stands out for its combination of grains and crystals, in the texture Alaska White Maximum, where an explosion of white, brown, red and gray hues is underscored by the lapped finish for a glossy-matte contrast; the second belongs to the collection Pietre Maximum, in the Jatoba Brown Maximum tone, a warm, deep brown with ferrous inserts, where the lapped finish makes the surface smooth and soft; finally, the third slab, from the collection Datauni Maximum, in the texture Uni Ice Maximum, is a pure enveloping white, enhanced by semi-gloss finishing.
Sciaraffa has taken inspiration for this work from an encounter with the Fiandre world during a solo show in Kazakhstan. The quality of the materials, the expressive potential of the ceramic slabs and the focus of Iris Ceramica Group on sustainability encouraged him to work with these products.
