How to Disappear: Pacifico Silano

September 21 - December 5, 2019

Central to Silano’s project “How to Disappear” is the relationship between loss and desire, death and ambition. The artist employs photographic fragmentation, layering, a variety of repeated cut-outs from erotic magazines in order to re-evaluate gay-eroticism specifically in the context that commences with the Stonewall riots up until the mid-1980s AIDS/HIV crisis. The images selected by the artist and found mostly in disco-era magazines are saturated in innocence, almost naivety. However, the vibrancy and euphoria of Silano’s colour palette suggest a possibility of complete freedom.

The artist eliminates any eroticism that lies on the surface of the crumpled paper, creating, instead, portraits of the new era that are structured from fragmented bodies, lifeless objects and landscapes.