Born in Italy, Simo Neri has lived in California, Paris, and New York, and has recently re-established her studio in San Francisco. Influenced by these different cultures, as well as by studies in art and philosophy, she has been combining photographic and painting techniques since 1978. Neri’s installations of large “photo curtains”, “photo kimonos”, and “photo falls”, are rhythmic and meditative in nature. Her recent work explores new printing techniques on silk, linen, and cotton canvas. Simo Neri’s work has been exhibited and collected in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Statement
Ever since I can remember I have approached reality through multiple perspectives. It has always been difficult for me to choose a single image to capture the essence of a subject - whether a tree, a dancer, a city, the ocean. What better way to get close to something than to move across the details of its surface, clicking selectively, collecting intimate visual data? Each sequence represents the original movement of the camera. As in film, the sequences follow the rhythm of discovery, connecting discontinuous images through the movements of the eye behind the camera. The sequences – every image is different - can then be accumulated and composed to create a larger statement. And soon, within this dynamic repetition, rhythms and patterns start to emerge. The ensuing grid structure imposes a kind of order on reality’s many chaotic forms, altering the work’s perception whether seen from a distance, or from up close. Sequential photography allows me to work on a large scale and to combine painterly elements with a sculptural format. The compositions become interactive, rhythmic and meditative, providing a glimpse of the infinite within the physical world. Observe the writing of water on sand, the pattern of bark on a tree, a building’s glass façade, the shimmer of cloth, the veins in a leaf. Experience a different perception of time, not presented in a seamless flow, but as time broken down into moments, captured one after the other.