Raffaella Corcione’s The Cosmic Dance
Julie Fishkin
Raffaella Corcione’s latest work presents an energetic inspection of the dynamic forces she sees as controlling our universe–fervent colors are set in opposition to the mellifluous movement of figures; male and female forms are pared and contrasted and set in symmetrical opposition. The vibrant backgrounds of her works seem to converge with the figures, push against them, threaten to overwhelm them, and set them in relief. This tension of opposing movements and contrasting elements make Corcione’s works appear to be in continuous motion.
With her new series, "The Cosmic Dance" Corcione continues her exploration of Eastern philosophy, more specifically, the forces of ying and yang as the ultimate antipodal structures that, despite and because of their opposing natures, function in a perpetual whole. Her paintings capture this contradiction; each painting presents a conjoined figure–a silhouette of a man and a woman that stand back to back, melded at their middles. At once, they appear to reach forward as if preparing to dive and continue on their path, and yet, bound to one another, they are immovable.
This image is reincarnated in her series of paintings. At first, these colorful works are reminiscent Warhol silkscreens–the repetition of forms, the pop colors in jarring contrast to the subject reproduced. This use of repetition is deceptive and alluring; unlike Warhol, Corcione singularly produces each painting by hand. Each piece surpasses the next with its sensual and flagrant color, the choice of which remains ambiguous, embellished with lines and patches of glitter. The well-defined figure in the center is bombarded with the stentorian, perhaps they are clashing voices, the interjection of chaotic elements. Corcione presents the constant struggle apparent in the world between simplicity and ostentation, between the simple and the elaborate, between order and chaos.
The flatness and brazen color of the paintings culminate in a large-scale photograph hanging directly across from the paintings, which shows the two figures now in their realistic form, naked and joined through a photographic manipulation at their back, presented by a force of rapid movement, depicted in the photograph as a strange blur. The photograph is quite captivating not only through its sheer size but the interesting manner in which Corcione depicts their "connection." There is something romantic and sensual at play, devoid of the theatricality evident in the color paintings. The photograph stands as the departure point, simple in its presentation of pure movement of the two conjoined elements. From here, as things collide and transform, our material world of glitter and ostentation imparts its influence to create a certain necessary chaos breeding creativity. Corcione’s background in dance enables her to understand the fluidity of movement thereby capturing the essence of dance, here the "cosmic dance" that surpasses her corporeal presence to create a new dynamic force, replete with anger and strife yet somehow calming in its grace.
Curated by Stefania Carrozzini, this exhibition is Raffaella Corcione’s first solo show in U.S. Her long smooth strokes in her paintings, and her romantically toned photographs provide a solid image of life and the oppositional nature constantly at work around us. Corcione imparts a visible female touch onto her work, a fact that clearly appeals to the curator. Within that, we sense her interest in Eastern philosophy as well as in early modernist painting, evoking at once the flatness of a Monet canvas, and the Pop imagery through the colors Warhol would have found quite appealing. In short, a mélange of world collide here to create the myriad of adverse forces inspiring Corcione as an artist.
