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AURORA MAZZOLDI
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T
he elegiac works of Aurora Mazzoldi address the balance between memory and loss, longing and absence, and the knowledge that the grace of being human lies in the ability to both mourn and commemorate our experiences. She is an artist bravely addressing the human condition without despair or criticism; acceptance accompanies the mood of sadness in these works.
Her subjects present themselves to us unadorned by defenses; they stare back at us, inhabiting a space in which the background seems to spread forward in deep, earthy colors, and where the sense of melancholy fueled by desire is strong. When there are no people present in her works, this sense of melancholy is even greater, for Mazzoldi has brilliantly chosen two iconic objects which strike chords of absence for us--flowers and an unworn hat. Throughout her works, Mazzoldi reiterates the importance of these two objects as living symbols. The absence of people, replaced by hats, and remembered by flowers--this is where Mazzoldi’s paintings convey her theme: the pain of loss alleviated by the palliative of love. The impermanence, yet importance, of human connection pervades these striking works.
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A second motif in Mazzoldi's painting is the intently staring eyes of her subjects. Whether in melancholy or innocent joy, or even closed in sleep, Mazzoldi exuberantly announces her faith in the eyes as windows to the soul. In canvases dominated by dark browns with slight touches of gold, eyes are often the only source of light to be found. Mazzoldi is asking that we acknowledge both the pain and joy of being human, and yet for all the unavoidable burdens of memory which these paintings suggest, there is no despair in these works. Even in melancholy, hope burns brightly here, quite literally emanating from the eyes. If the talismans of hat or flowers are the theme, then eyes tell the stories in Mazzoldi’s dreamlike paintings; it’s there that we take in the world. We grow, Aurora Mazzoldi is telling us in her paintings, from innocence to experience, and from experience to knowledge.
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