Those Fine Italian Hands

You have lost so much.” This sobering statement translates in Italian as Hai perso tanto. To one who isn’t fluent, concepts such as loss, isolation, and conflict can sound deceptively beautiful when described in this romance language.

But might it be that there are traces of beauty in these subjects? And that the real “deception” actually lies in our failure to notice? Two local artists are convinced that this is so and would like to propose the case to the Fargo Moorhead community.

Through a collaborative effort of painting and poetry, visual artist Shari Scapple and writer Kevin Carollo have assembled a body of work which utilizes Italian images and language to explore some of the heaviest themes in the human condition.

Like workers in a vineyard, Scapple and Carollo act as a team-pruning away cultural differences to reveal (and strengthen) the crucial similarities: those individuals who doubt, suffer, grow, and dream--all the while reckoning with their place in society’s entanglement of voices.

This complex interaction is portrayed in stunning pastels, streaked with sadness and light, accompanied by powerful streams of lines:

We must worship
The side of the family that lived with the animals, and drink
The black and venomous grapes of the region. We should eat
The pills off the hotel room floor, and use the dullest razor in
Paradise to scrape away the blood. Then we will crucify our
Feet on every empty bed, see the Unknown Soldier in every
Empty bottle.

(From Carollo’s “Hai Perso Tanto”)

The opening reception for “Emotional and Tactile Qualities of Italy” will be held at the Spirit Room on August 9th, beginning at 6:30 pm. Scapple will give an artist’s talk at 8:00, which will be followed with a reading by Carollo.

The poems and visuals to be introduced at the event emerge from common foundations of thought. They are at times intertwined, and at times unraveling in surprising directions--such as a flow of words inspired by a piece graffiti in Florence.

What is most captivating, however, is not the magical portrayal of foreign scenes, or even the graceful interplay between creative mediums-but the inexhaustible light they cast on their subjects. The light, and the shadow.

If You Go

What: Faces of Italy: paintings by Shari Scapple, poetry by Kevin Carollo
Where: The Spirit Room
When: Aug. 9, 6:30-9 p.m.; artist’s talk and poetry reading: 8 p.m.
Info: (701) 237-0230