SANDFORD&GOSTI, Galaxy Pendente, 2014

Interview: SANDFORD&GOSTI

The art duo SANDFORD&GOSTI talks with Luca Curci about their experience in Venice, during MORPHOS – Sustainable Empires.

Jodi Sandford (San Josè, California, 1955) and Valter Gosti (Perugia, 1955), merge their work for single artistic events. Having worked side by side since 1976, they decided to present their work under a single signature in 2000. Sandford&Gosti have enacted their project, ACTIONS PER in/FINITE FORMS [AZIONI PER FORM in/FINITE], and carry forward the idea of RECURRENT FLUCTUATION OF EVENTS (WAVES OF re/ACTION) and the periodicity of actions hypothesis. Their artistic media include installation, performance, video and digital photography.

SANDFORD&GOSTI, Riva pendente, 2003

Luca Curci – Your work has just been exhibited during MORPHOS – Sustainable Empires in Venice: can you talk about your personal experience in Venice with International ArtExpo?

SANDFORD&GOSTI – We can say that it was an exciting and unique experience to do our visual art performance in a 16th century palace of such historical importance. The ambient was enchanting and the audience was engaging and knowledgable.

L. C. – Can you talk about the artwork you presented in Venice? How is it linked with the festival’s theme?

S&G – Our performance “Suspended Rocks” is a totally self-sustainable work contained in 4 plastic buckets and a piece of recycled laminated plywood. It is composed of 80 rocks (from around the world) and 80 used glass jars. The performance is the setting up of the 80 stones on top of the 80 jars placed on the wooden surface. The sound of the rocks and glass hitting each other, together with the concepts of lightness, delicacy, liquidness, and transparency that lend themselves to support/sustain the concepts of heaviness, solidity, materiality, and opaqueness create a strong visual paradoxical metaphor. The performance from a well lit ambient concludes in the dark with an SOS light strobe, as a message of urgent necessity to build a sustainable future. The piece creates an expression of the need for balance and structure, of contrast and tension, and of the contemporaneous existence of manmade and natural objects. It reflects the very idea of “sustainability” and of contrasting identities that work together to create a single world. The sound created by Ricky L. specifically for this performance accompanies the noise made by the installation of the rocks and jars and adds to the auditory sense of tension.

SANDFORD&GOSTI, Color and Emotion, 2012

L. C. – What are you currently working on?

S&G – We are working on completing our 15 year project, ACTIONS PER in/FINITE FORMS [AZIONI PER FORM in/FINITE], 2000-2015, and carry forward the idea of RECURRENT FLUCTUATION OF EVENTS (WAVES OF re/ACTION) and the periodicity of actions hypothesis through the artistic media of installation, performance, video and digital photography. This project is an expression of ecotone, which means the border area, the space between two things, the boundary between in and out. An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities (ecosystems). It may appear on the ground as a gradual blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line. The word was coined from a combination of eco(logy) plus -tone, from the Greek tonos or tension – in other words, a place where ecologies are in tension. We work on developing frontier areas where artistic actions are used to communicate through cultural actions, thoughts, forms, materials, and colors.

L. C. – What is art for you?

S&G – Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. Art is a manifestation of culture and what man is capable of creating in envisioning that which is not already existing. Art is the act of communicating an interior state that would otherwise remain silent.

SANDFORD&GOSTI, Objectscapecotone, 2013

L. C. – What do you think about International ArtExpo organization?

S&G – The International ArtExpo organization is made up of generous, courteous and industrious individuals, who dealt with the complexity of installing a multi-faceted exhibition in a particularly delicate architectural context with respect and competence.

L. C. – Do you think International ArtExpo organization can represent an opportunity for artists?

S&G – Yes, definitely. The well managed website and press packets make it so the artists receive visibility and documentation of the work done. The large audience and warm reception in an important venue such as Venice give artists a wonderful opportunity to present their work in a lively artistic event.