TODD STONG

WRITTEN BY FLAVIA BARBARINI

In his monotypes Gazing/Walking and Digging, Todd Stong reflects on the importance of a backward-looking gaze even as time propels us forward. The two works, depicting deep, dark holes and skeletons, are inspired by the archaeological excavation of the city of Rome and represent a manifesto on the search for in-depth awareness that is necessary for contemporary society to cope with its own past. At the same time, they are a timely reflection on the urgency of exploring multiple forms of history, including colonialism and racial studies. These striking symbols appear again in the monumental work Gardens (Archway), a fantasy where the viewer should not look for a moral, or for winners. In this work, Stong plays with how the idea of reversal, both on a conceptual and formal level, is highlighted in the process of printmaking itself. Meanwhile, the symmetrical and specular elements of the compositions are a manifestation of the reversal of contents and of fortune, as they move from comic to tragic scenes. Through free associations and a personal re-elaboration of significant forms drawn from Western art history—including, for instance, Michelangelo’s naked figures and the skeleton of the Virgin Mary inspired by a drawing by Raphael for The Deposition of the Baglioni Altarpiece—the work invites us to meditate on themes of queer sexuality, the AIDS crisis, abortion rights and ecology. The natural world visually and thematically unifies the composition, which unfolds on multiple sheets: the snake grapples and binds together the naked figures in their fight against AIDS; the bees sting the skeleton of the Virgin Mary after having sucked the nectar from the yellow silphium, a plant used as a contraceptive by Ancient Romans, while the same bees are artificially inseminated by a skeleton; finally, the amphibians flee from a pond that has been reduced to a urinal. In Stong’s works, we can see an incessant transformation of meanings, messages and symbols that, through the apparent quietude of a fantastical garden, ultimately leads us to a bitter reality

Digging

GAZING/WALKING (right)

Monotype with etching ink and flashe on paper. 39” x 26.5".

GARDENS (ARCHWAY) (opposite page)

22-panel monotype polyptych with etching ink, flashe, collage, and binder clips on paper. 156” x 168”.

Benni