Kasia Michalski

an eye for an eye features six monochromatic wall-mounted works that the artist identifies as “faces”. Boccato uses the shapes of commonplace objects – toilets, sinks, buttons, chairs, gourds, windows, clothes, genitalia, islands, tools, cameras, holes, tunnels, stars, flowers, bottles, plugs, boxes, machines, shoes, bones, pots, letters, signs, and animals – to appeal to the human inclination to perceive and recognize facial features in random objects, patterns and images.

Each work begins with a preliminary sketch on cardboard. Cardboard is cut out in the desired shape. Tarp is laid upon the cardboard cutout. Corrugated plastic is used to build walls around it. Packing tape is used to hold everything together and to cover any gaps and holes. Polyurethane paint coats the inside of the mold, registering the marks from the taping and the creases and folds of the tarp. Fiberglass reinforced epoxy binds to the paint and creates a strong core. Once the open surface of the mold is closed shut with a back support, the tarp, cardboard, and corrugated plastic are separated from the painted surface and discarded, leaving behind only the final cast.

These works are located at the intersection of drawing, painting, and sculpture. Drawing imparts a spontaneous energy at the very outset of production. Painting enables the viewer to read matte and glossy textures. Sculpture is what the works become when installed on a wall, with their intense gazes activating the whole room. At the most fundamental level, these works are about the interplay of form and emotion. About reflexively identifying the liminal stage inherent to the process of recognizing and attaching meaning to what are, ultimately, arbitrary, abstract shapes.

Alex Urso, An eye for an eye. Daniel Boccato’s «poor» sculptures in Warsaw, „Artribune”, 16.12.2015 (in Italian)