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FRANCESCA LEONE: MOTION / EMOTION
On first acquaintance with these new works by Francesca Leone, one could be
forgiven for thinking that they are solely concerned with the inherent irony of
attempting to capture movement in a static medium – something summarised
in the paradoxical title given to the pieces: Immobile Flux. It is an irony that
one might suppose would naturally be appreciated by a painter immersed from
an early age in the world of ‘motion pictures’, which also rely on still images to
generate a convincing illusion of movement – albeit a vast number, presented
to the viewer in rapid succession, in contrast to the painter’s single rectangular
expanse of canvas. Leone’s use of photography as the point of departure for
her works – with its unique ability to arrest motion – would only appear to
reinforce this interpretation.
And yet whilst her choice of flowing water as subject matter reveals an interest
in a problem that has occupied artists for centuries, and which particularly
fascinated the Italian avant-garde in the early years of the twentieth Century,
it would be a mistake to see it as the overriding focus of these images. Indeed,
if it were so they would be far less interesting than they actually are. Rather, it
is their equal attention to the psychological dynamics of the frozen image that
makes the works displayed in the present exhibition so compelling.
It seems relevant at this point to recall Goethe’s notion of the ‘fugitive moment’:
that precise point during the performance of an action that is carefully selected
by the painter for its ability to encompass an altogether wider temporal scope and
convey a sense of animation by implying both the sequence of events or
movements leading up to that point, and those which must necessarily follow it.
In looking at a work such as Emotionless, for instance, we understand that we
are viewing the features of man through a (moving) stream of water rather than
a (static) sheet of ice; our knowledge of this fact endows the image with an
unstable quality, in keeping with Goethe’s recommendation that ‘no part of the
whole ought to be found before in this position and, in a little time after, every part
should be obliged to quit that position; it is by this means that the work be always
animated for millions of spectators’ 1 . However, what is true for the physical acts
depicted in an artwork is also true for its metaphysical aspects: a single ‘moment’
likewise being able to contain a broader emotional sweep than one ‘pitched
upon’ 2 with less judiciousness, communicating to the attentive viewer the full
complexity of an emotional state – or rather, psychological flux.
1
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Observations on the Laocoon’, in Goethe on Art, ed. by John Gage (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 78-88 (p. 81).
2
Ibid.
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