L’ultimo sigillo, 2022

On the wall nine drawings of sundials, from an antique book, are arranged so that they appear to be falling freely, until they touch the gilt frame, set down on the ground, which holds another drawing. In the latter drawing a hand traces a red spiral on the face of a wristwatch, evoking a seal “whose purpose is to replace the movement of the hands, or rather the passing of the hours”, the artist explains.
The sundials and the clock allude to the inexorable passing of time, while the gesture of the hand placing a seal on the watch indicates the desire to stop it. The adjective “ultimo” (last) in the title indicates the peremptoriness of the gesture: “the stopping of time marks an absolute suspension with respect to the incessant changeability of things, a condition that, in a metaphorical key, connotes the sphere of art that is extraneous to the unstoppable flow of time and the finiteness of our existence.1

1 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, 7 April 2022.