Veins of Anguish Marco Autuori

Veins of Anguish

“I leave the viewer a taste of sadness and disgust for the way the world is made of anti-heroes, femme fatale and where a happy ending is never contemplated or actualized.”

Countless artists in the world endeavour to evoke feeling from you. Some have stories to tell, others have a point to make or some social commentary to be conveyed. There are others still that leave the emotion up to you, but almost all, wish for you to feel something when you gaze upon their creations. However, there are some, who elicit emotion so effortlessly, that they will never fully understand the magnitude of impact they have over their viewers. Digital artist, Marco Autuori, is one of these artists. Fascinatingly creative and humble within the personal enjoyment of his works, Autuori is one of those artists you love to love. Standing firmly in his visions, he offers an uncanny reminder of what great art meant to be to the one who wields it: joy. While it may seem like a juxtaposed perception to images so candidly marked by fatalism, his pictures are irrefutably as emotionally satisfying as they are haunting. With a breathtaking ability to not only express his own emotions but to accurately perceive the feelings of others is circumstances disparate to his own, Autuori’s art open-handedly delivers his viewers an unstinting experience into their own psyche. Like an elaborate Rorschach test meant not to diagnose, but to peel back your layers, revealing you to yourself, Autuori succeeds in silently antagonizing your inner anguish, flushing it wordlessly to the surface, where you too, can come to know it and find a way to release it from your being. We caught up with Autuori for an interview, in hopes that we could reveal some insight behind the inspiration for his images that conjure such elusive and tacit emotional responses. Please tell us about yourself–who is the man behind these incredibly creative images? I was born in Naples, back in 1983. At the age of ten, I moved to the Mediterranean island of Elba. Growing up, I did a lot of work to try to make money, from mechanical workshops to working on a fishing boat. I started making digital collages a few years ago, as a bit of fun. I started with simple images taken from my cell phone, obviously, the result was not the best, but I liked the idea of ​​changing reality. Then, not being able to afford the images of superior quality, I started to wander the web, often looking for portraits to change. In those portraits, I put in my vision of the world, of the fears, desires, memories of the past, memories of fears, memories of lived moments and reminiscences with a dreamlike flavor. I use a lot of black and white. I grew up with film noir, Lansdale novels, and blues music. My works are a simple release valve, my favorite hobby. You said that your images are representations of your "vision of the world,” can you elaborate on that? I have tried to give a "personal" interpretation of the feelings I experienced, but also to those experiences to which I did not live directly. For example, in my image "Lonely Men" I thought of the fishermen, the nets that must fall every night, the lonely men in the middle of the sea, their eyes always red, lips stung by the salty air. In another work, "Losses", I imagined a woman who lost something important from the womb, a life or simply a desire unhatched for too long. While in "Divinity", I imagined a beautiful woman, famous, a woman to flatter, but perhaps has committed some petty actions to achieve success, rotting her from the inside out. Do you find that your visions, fears and memories release themselves in some way once they are embodied by your images? I started making these digital collages, to exorcise and cultivate a vent for my visions and fears (not always personal). It's a way of trying to get rid of something that maybe I did not see right and most of my works are lined with a vein of anguish. How do you showcase your love of film noir through your imagery? Just like in the best film noir, strictly in black and white, I almost always try to do my works without colour; only in some works will I put a point of colour to emphasize a detail I wish to bring out. Also, as in part of film noir, I leave the viewer taste of sadness and disgust for the way the world made of anti-heroes, femme fatale and where a happy ending is never contemplated or actualized. Each piece is aptly named, do you begin with the theme or is it something that evolves throughout the piece? Almost always, I lead with a precise idea, which in the development phase can change, but I am always striving to keep that original meaning. I do not create my images by force to send a social message to the viewer; they are simply my vision of the things I see, hear and feel. I metabolize my images in my own way and believe the viewer will as well.