Gilberto Zorio

Like many of the artist of the expanded Arte Povera movement, Zorio professed faith in and practiced alchemy. This added to the reasons why Zorio identified with the luck-bringing five pointed pentagram, which is the symbol of Venus. Many of his pieces were influenced by this belief and influenced his choice in materials. An example of this is found in his pieces using mine lamps. One can interpret the lamp as a symbol for the enlightenment of the spirit.[11]

Stars are a recurring theme in Gilberto's work. It became an obsession and he saw it as a part of the public imagination. He described his processes in these works by stating "I have done nothing more than make it, drag it in, and make use of it in favor I know not what of, though I hope and believe in favor of a need for energy and amazement."[12]

Zorio has worked with the idea of canoes throughout his career. He created these using assorted materials such as pitch or steel. He describes a canoe as " A javelin of water, it is desire and dream, forward motion, the idea of effort, conquest, new landfalls."[13]

Javelins are a recurring theme in Zorio's work. He used javelins as stand-alone objects and has also used them to work into other the themes. An example of this can be found in Zorio's piece titled Stella di giavellotti (Star of javelins). According to Zorio, the javelin is an instrument whose "design has been perfected through the millennia (and has) reached absolute beauty."[14]

Zorio's Tenda is a work that plays with the laws of physics and chance. Zorio took a green cloth, which was soaked in salt water, draped it over a metal scaffolding, and clamped it in place. The salt water ran through the cloth and onto the ground, where it evaporated, leaving traces of salt on the cloth. This was shown at Sperone gallery, Turin, in Zorio's solo show in 1967. It was shown again in 'Con temp l'azione', in Turin in 1967.[15]

Zorio created Colonna (Column). This piece is a simple column made of asbestos that crushes a rubber tube.[16] Zorio created three works with the same materials and dimensions that have been realized with the same title.[17]

Zorio commented on this piece saying, “Rubber is a plant material, it becomes very hard with this cement that runs over it and it doesn’t touch the ground, in a terrifying balance, where the air chamber supports the overturned capital pipe. It is as if the breath were missing from a historic being, one might speak of feelings, of forces and relationships between present and past, but interpretations risk missing the mark."[18]

For Rosa-blu-rosa (Pink-blue-pink) Zorio created a half-cylinder of asbestos cement that contains a mixture of cobalt chloride. This causes it to changes color from pink to blue in relation to changes in atmospheric humidity. A defining feature of this work is, therefore, the contrast between its elemental form and its instability, including the static structure and its ability to change, identifying not in a state of quiet, but in an energetic process in perpetual transformation, thanks to which, the time becomes a constitutive element of the work.

Germano Celant, an Italian art historian, critic, and curator, commented on this piece saying, "Thus this involves a time system that reacts to the changes that concern it, and its formal equilibrium, in the absence of an optimal or quiet state, is changed by external intervention; to experience the work, the viewer must be present, since it is his or her presence that necessarily transforms the appearance of the work. The change of color is not dictated by aesthetic principles, but by an extra-artistic element."[19]

Zorio's Senza titolo (untitled) is a performative sculpture. Zorio took a bowl and filled it with a mix of bright yellow sulphur powder and iron powder. In the bowl of powder is a magnetic handle. As the participant drags the handle along the powder, it picks up the black iron powder thus creating black marks across the surface. Eventually the handle loses its magnetic pull and the iron will start falling back into the sulphur mixture.[20]

Zorio's Senza titolo (untitled) is a piece created out of bamboo branches, bonfire, Pyrex pot, and cement bricks. A bundle of bamboo sticks are suspended 40 cm above the floor. Below this, Zorio built a small fire between two cement blocks, on which he balanced an upturned Pyrex dish.[21] When talking about this piece, Zorio comments that “In my work... I see and proceed... with discontinuous movements; it is a way of acting and reflecting that takes into account senses of time and impulses that are at times very short while at other highly extended; it is a kind of exploration in which, sometimes, I am surprised to discover the remains of an old campsite of mine... It would be enough to light the fire again."

Zorio's Scrittura bruciata (Burnt writing) is one of the sculptures which he used as part of a performance, as well as a stand-alone piece. A heated copper plate was placed inside a rectangular wire cage. A sheet of copper was attached to one side of the cage to make a ledge where Zorio placed a sheet of paper and a pen with invisible ink on top of it. Zorio wrote messages on the paper in invisible ink and dropped the page onto the hot plate where the words became visible for a few seconds until the paper burnt up. It was first exhibited at Sonnabend Gallery, Paris, 1969, and was shown later that year as part of the exhibition "Op losse schroeven" at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.[22]

Per purificare le parole was one of the first of Zorio's large series. This work is intended to be an interactive piece which facilitates the alchemical transformation of spoken language by filtering through alcohol. A long tube of soft hemp was filled with alcohol and attached to a metal frame. The tube was left with two open ends that were raised to the level of a standing persons height. This work becomes interactive when the spectator speaks into one end of the tube. His voice is then filtered, as it runs through the tube, and comes out at the other end of the tube "purified." This work was originally shown at the 1970 "Gennaio '70: Third International Biennial of Young Painting," Bologna.[23] Zorio commented on this work saying, "Alcohol is a mystic liquid. It is also called 'spirits.' It disinfects, burns, inebriates, it transforms and modifies perception." -Gilberto Zorio," 1985.

Zorio has used text as image throughout his career. He uses many different materials in the creation of these works. Examples of these are in pieces such as: Odio [hate], Confine [border], and Fluidità Radicale [radical fluidity]. Three different versions of Confine were created. In one the word confine was written in incandescent wire and hung in a room. Another version was created by photographer Paolo Mussat Sartor in 1971. Sartor used long exposure to photograph the artist sitting in Sartor studio with the word "confine" written in the air from the smoke of a cigarette. The smoke made it so that the artist could barely be seen. Another version was created by Zorio in 1971 when Zorio wrote "confine" on a gallery wall with luminous ink which was visible only when the lights were off. Every four minutes the lights would turn off for a few seconds to reveal the hidden ink before the lights turned on again.[24]

Zorio created his first Canoa in 1984. That piece was formed of an elongated terracotta triangle which was balanced on a crucible. Zorio created this series out of many unconventional materials including: wood, leather, javelins, copper sulphate, hydrochloric acid, and alcohol. Morio's installations have a strong spatial presence, and his canoe has the same aerodynamic feel as the tips of his javelin piece, Stella di giavellotti (Star of javelins). This element is common in his work. Canoa is a real and symbolic piece which suggest fluidity, action, and speed. Zorio uses stars and crucibles in conjunction with his canoes which are associated with sailors and navigation.[25]