The Numeric Life of Nonno
Artist: David Piombini
This art piece is a portrait of my grandfather who was with me for most of my early childhood. This portrait uses important numbers to convey his life as-well as a physical plaque I designed inspired by the musical awards that are given to musicians. My grandfather died at 90 with Alzheimer unfortunately which is why the glitch in the music being played in the video is important it is to represent this struggle. Numbers have represented people in a more colder manor as numbers have been used to show statics, charts, or to count an amount of people so this piece also intends to give numbers a more powerful and connected meaning with a individual important to my life. All numbers in the video are in chronological order from his birthday to his death day and describe significant points in his life like the age he retired or the amount of years he worked for the job. There are also numbers that represent a part of him that I remember being significant like how he had 8 tomato plants in his garden when I was a kid. Each number has a special meaning relating back to him which shows his life in a indirect way that encourages the viewer to engage with the piece to identify possible dates. When the number 10 is reached in the video which is around 1:18 a ticking clock is heard and that can be explained by the fact that the 10 represents 10 years since he has died and keeps increasing because it goes from 10 years to 10 years in months,weeks, days, hours,minutes, seconds in order to emphasize how much time it has been without him. The ticking clock has a double meaning as for one it indicates the time passing but it also signals the emptiness of the memory as nothing can be heard anymore but the ticking clock like there is nothing left.
References made in the piece related to my Grandfather
Numbers are Chronological shows his life passing by
2.15 seconds between numbers showing (Figure 2)
25 seconds in starts glitching is to represent 1925 the year he was born in and holds for 10 seconds referring to the 10th anniversary of his death.
Progressively gets worse until its silent only a clock can be heard(Music) represents his Alzheimer’s
Clock ticking in the video at 1:18 is to represent time passing
On The Plaque is the number sum of all the numbers in the video before 1:18 as after that those aren’t numbers of his life.
6 pieces of fragmented vinyl to represent the 6 siblings he had which the fragmented pieces are also in the shape of tree representing that he has a tree in his name as-well as a family tree
Mom and dad vinyl reference to how he was a big part of my life as-well as he was my grand (dad).
A unseen reference but part of the process which will be shown below is that his hammer was used to break the vinyl (Figure 1)
(Figure 1)
(Figure 2)
The Process of Building the Plaque
Initial Idea Jotting and Drafts Including Ideas that were sidelined
Gallery Display Mock up
If I was to display this work in a gallery I would want it to be dark as seen in this picture with two candles around it as if its a funeral or morning with the headphones left in the middle as seen in the photos. The video would be on projector and put on the wall about 10 inches up from the plaque. The silence before you put on the headphones is to symbolize you stepping into his mind so its important that its not playing out loud.
References
The Ed Sullivan Show. (2024, October 20). Domenico Modugno “Volare (Nel blu, dipinto di blu)” on The Ed Sullivan Show [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99ivDAqwSM&list=RDu99ivDAqwSM&start_radio=1.
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