Chaos and Order, di Kotaro Lizawa
Kotaro Iizawa per il catalogo MORPHOSIS, Onebyone Contemporary Art Gallery, Tokyo, 1992
CHAOS AND ORDER
Order within chaos —— this is the phrase that comes to my mind whenever I see works of Italian photographers. Compared to those countries in the north where everything appears to exist in an orderly fashion, Italy always gives us its own distinct impression of "southness." There, the borderline of every object gets obscured and everything gets mingled together. The photographer steps into this chaotic world, selects his own images, and tries to subdue the images to fit them into his orderly world of rectangular frames. Chaos and Order struggle against each other. To my mind, the works of Italian photographers always seem to embody this type of dramatic struggle —— even if the photograph is of a very serene sight.
I believe most Japanese people have never heard of Francesco Radino. It was when I was shown the works to be exhibited in Onebyone Contemporary Art Gallery that I first heard the name of this Italian photographer. You can, however, easily tell that he is a very talented photographer by looking through, for example, the book of his collected works (Francesco Radino; Modus videndi, Idea Books, 1989). He is especially competent in taming the chaos.
Radino was born in 1947, in Bagno a Ripoli, a suburban town of Firenze (Florence). One of his grandfathers was an enthusiastic amateur photographer; his parents were painters. It was therefore a natural course for him to become a photographer. His works cover many different fields such as reportage, architecture and fashion (this is another distinct feature of Italian photographers). He has had a lot of experience in the field of reportage, and from the experience he acquired perfect technique as a professional photographer. Although Radino is in his early forties, the imposing atmosphere of his works makes you feel that he has already reached the stage of a master.
One of the characteristics of Radino's photographs is humor and irony. You often cannot help smiling looking at his works although it may not have been his original intention. The title of his collected works, "Modus videndi (a way of seeing )" is itself a pun of a Latin cliche, "Modus vivendi (a way of living)." In the book, he is described as a person who loves to tell stories of “throw-away items, little jokes, puns," and who often recites a poem or sings a little song. And it is clear that he also takes photographs "in jest, in utter seriousness.”
In the works for this exhibition at Onebyone Contemporary Art Gallery, however, humour and irony have receded, and instead you notice architectural configuration is much emphasized. In these latest photographs of his on industrial factories, Radino's interest is centered on the drama of light and shadow upon the huge buildings, the rough and craggy feel of steel and concrete, and the marks left on the architecture in the course of time. Melancholic feelings rather than light touch of humor, and disorganized sentiments rather than adoration of order are more apparent.
I cannot tell whether this means the shift of his interest or whether he is only showing his other aspect. All I can tell is that he has made another step toward a greater photographer. I sincerely hope that people in Japan will get more chance to get acquainted with the world of Radino's photographs as well as the works of other photographers of Italy, the land of chaos.
Kotaro lizawa is a photograph critic and the chief editor of "deja-vu" Magazine.)