|
Mark Anastasi
Jacksonville, FL USA
manastasi@onvol.net
www.markanastasi.com
FANTASY IN STONE
MARK
ANASTASI
(1961-)
Structures,
castles, towers, ramps, tiers, spiral and rectilinear flights of steps that
reach upward towards the clouds and sky above.
Echoes, or an interpretation of the hanging gardens of Babylon, the tower
of Babel, the architectural structures carved in the rock at Petra, picturesque
terraced fields hanging from the cliff face at Mtahleb, Malta or in China carved
in soft ‘globigerina’, honey coloured limestone.
These structures of modules in repeated clusters, in tiered ziggurats and
pyramids reach upward in an architectonic balance of spaces, volumes and forms.
Mark
Anastasi is a sculptor imbued with a musical flair for form.
His works emanate rhythm, harmony, cadence and nuance.
He is a fantastic dreamer with a natural inclination towards hewing
‘franca’ or ‘globigerina’ (Malta) stone.
His obsession, his fixation is so overwhelming that it leaves him
breathless, hardly able to wean away from it.
He seems prolific for he contracted such fixation in a sudden and abrupt
manner and since then has created continuously and assiduously.
It descended on him like a traumatic bout that dominates and dictates his
moods, that clears everything in its path.
Mark’s
work is like a maze of passages, a labyrinth similar to the underground caves at
Knossos of the legendary and mythological Minotaur.
He carves into the stone like a bookworm, like a woodworm – catacombs
and hypogea terraced and multi-layered without weakening the block.
He cuts, hews, carves and sculpts as if one possessed, inspired by the
‘daemon’, modelling with verve and élan quite unique until he arrives at
the core. The end result is an
arabesque tracery or decorative lace, the honeycomb quality of a coalmine with
the relentless risk, enthusiasm and fever of an adventurer, explorer, researcher
or navigator in a jungle, forest or ocean.
His
frenzied efforts resemble those of a mystic trying to unravel the mystery of
creation, ‘The Celestine Prophecy” or the endless search for truth, but,
since such yearning is relative, highly illusive and vague he hardly obtains
satisfaction or relief. Thus the
process becomes endless, infinite and irreversible.
One
of the works resembles structured saltpans, organised vertically like
waterfalls. Every pan or saucer
rests on pillars or stalagmites of the one below it.
On its flat top or plateaux the observer discovers the ruins of massive
fortifications. Castles, towers, bastions, keeps, caves, minarets, steeples or
bell-towers fascinate the artist.
In
one of his works he is inspired explicitly by a mosque and its minarets, by
Islamic architecture. He carves in
its minarets innumerable perforations that resemble a honeycomb, Ementhal or
Swiss cheese. Such structure is
quite oriental. Yet Mark is not
tied to a specific influence; rather he is inspired by a wide variety of
cultures including those of ancient civilisations and South American styles:
Inca, Maya and Aztec. He skilfully
grafts different cultures into architectural hybrids of local bastions and
lookout post with those of distant Syria, Persia and the Orient.
Beside
architectural, geometric and schematic forms and shapes Mark interprets
anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms. His
‘male nude’ is perhaps one of his best works, considering its strength in
its simplicity and economy. The
man, in a crouching position, covering his ears is quite symbolic.
It seems that the cacophony of this absurd and mad world is so deafening
that he has lost all sense of orientation, of stability.
Confused he feels isolated, emarginated, completely ostracised.
He seems losing his grip on the rock under him, revealing that he is
losing his hold on reality, underlining his instability, uncertainty and
irritability.
‘Lizards’
is a work of pure fantasy and imagination that represents reptiles sun-bathing
on a textured and rough stone. The
stone is pitted like the jambs of the trilithons in our megalithic temples.
The reptiles are basking in the hot, blinding desert sun and their
oscillatory movement intimates a tribal dance with macabre undertones.
The circular and curvilinear movements seem the result of witchcraft, of
a spell or curse, so grotesque and surreal.
The rock strata are folded, rounded and cylindrical with parallel faults,
ravines or chasms. The repetition
of folds creates a pattern with a musical and harmonic rhythm that weaves into
the beat of this choreographic happening. The
artist trespasses into the enclaves of metaphysical dimensions.
In
this facet or mood Mark’s works become phantasmagoria, monstrous and even
grotesque and burlesque. In this
manner Mark carves a grafting of human masks in an acute surrealism.
The labyrinth or maze changes into a simple, logical and contained
surrealism: a still life in ‘globigerina’ – two alcohol bottles, a brandy
glass and a stopper made of cork. This
metaphysical creation has an affinity with that employed by Giorgio Morandi
(1890-1964) in his interpretation of containers and receptacles.
Perhaps the suffused softness, the smooth polished surface, the cold
powdery whiteness of the stone act in concert on our psyche and metamorphose the
physical, realistic and tangible qualities of the fragile material into a
surreal entity.
Mark
Anastasi was born in Sliema in 1961. He
is a professional restorer of old farm- houses and buildings and therefore his
love of architecture runs in his blood. He
has learnt photography through practice and enjoys playing musical instruments
and composing music. This talent
for music is the basis of carving stone. Before
taking up sculpture Mark specialised in breeding reptiles but presently he
concentrates on his art. With the
help of the Internet Mark’s work has become quite popular with gallery
directors and private viewers who admire and appreciate his fantastic creations.
2001.
12. 13.
E. V. Borg
|
