Life Guard [Genius Loci]

The series of four Life Guards Aira, Terra, Acqua and Fuoco refer to today's ecological emergency, and are the personifications of the four elements Air, Earth, Fire and Water, common to all western and eastern cosmogonies. In the Life Guard series, an anonymous figure silently drags a stretcher bed laden with symbolic objects. In their solitary striding, the bodies project an image of alertness and emergency. As well as an interesting ambiguity between the functional and symbolic aspects of the sculpture, we are not sure if the figure has survived or is in the process of saving.

To evoke air, Aira, the idea of flight is poetically presented by the presence of a silk parachute made of fabric scraps, and the kid-leather glove feathers that adorn the stretcher bed and mask of an eagle. Mother Earth, Terra, is symbolically depicted, lush and generous, by multi-coloured flowers and plants laid-out on the linen tarp, like a modern Botticelli Primavera.

Energy in the form of fire, Fuoco, takes the form of a lion with a richly decorated jacquard uniform, trailing multiple tails, or ‘life-lines’. Acqua, refers to Studio Orta’s ongoing topic of research, which poses questions relating to its safeguard, scarcity and issues surrounding the privatization and corporate control effecting access to clean water.

The Life Guards, Aira, Acqua and Fuoco were commissioned by the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum for the exhibition Sustainable Thinking and presented in three museums across Florence, Italy: Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Palazzo Vecchio, and Museo Novecento, from April-July 2019.

• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/7...
• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/7...
• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/7...
• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/7...