WEM EDITORIAL #5 DANIELE SIGALOT
BIPOLAR COLORS (2018 – ongoing)
Daniele Sigalot is a conceptual artist whose artistic language is joyful, cynical, absurd through its content, materiality, and scale. The playful nature of his works finds one of its best expressions in the series entitled “Bipolar Colors” (2018 –ongoing) where neon lights clearly express dilemmas between semiotic signs and the signification of colours. Playing with signifiers and meanings, he alternates the perception and representation of colour by questioning commonly accepted meanings.
Daniele Sigalot – Opere artista (BIPOLAR COLORS)
“The series Bipolar Colors allows me to combine both my passion for opposites and my indecision. It fits perfectly into my desire to play, to disorient the viewer, to create an illusion.” Daniele Sigalot
Deeply ironic, Sigalot plays with materiality and its context, exploring the ambiguous nature of our perceptions. Since his first exhibition in 2006, his 40+ exhibits around the world have seen his oeuvre spanning diverse media such as text, aluminum, neon art, and photography. Notable shows have been held at La Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome; MoAD –Museum of Art and Design, Miami; Bernheimer Contemporary, Berlin; Mayoral Galeria, Barcelona; Gallerie degliUffizi, Firenze; Museum La Triennale, Milan; Reggia di Caserta, Caserta; Palazzo Reale, Naples; Museo Archeologico, Potenza; MAR –Museo D’Arte, Ravenna; Palazzo Ducale, Genoa.
Daniele Sigalot – Opere artista (BIPOLAR COLORS)
Deception, suspension, illusion are themes to which Sigalot is attracted. To deceive or delude (in Italian “illudere”) comes from Latin “illudĕre” which is composed by the word “ludĕre” that means to play or have fun. According to Sigalot, to be able to be play or to be ironic is very original and serious, so not obvious.
What is striking about Sigalot’s work is that it is simple as well as strong and sharp. What does color mean? What is art? All the artist’s exploration revolves around irony as a trick to establish a connection with the spectator. Is it true that red is blue, blue is red, green is pink? Can reality be whatever you want to be? This series seems to suggest so, however the doubt remains.
The sensational value of his work lies in its being dissonant, almost paradoxical. After all, aren’t the best paradoxes the ones whichreveal the truth by questioning it?
Sigalot appropriates the concept of representation in its literal sense to expand its conceptualization. What we have here is the representation of a “call and response” between colors, the possibility of a color to represent itself through another color, the rare occasion in which a color inhabits another color, or the illusion in which reality disguises itself in perception.
Daniele Sigalot – Opere artista (BIPOLAR COLORS)
Sigalot’s work tries to provide at least a hypothesis, never an answer, because his practice always endeavours to act in several directions. His works is fresh and has the ability of taking a concept and turning it upside down, of creating immediate payoffs. He cultivated this ability in his previous job, when he was working in advertising for Saatchi & Saatchi and still today is looking at the world from a different point of view.
Sigalot’s artistic practice is built on reshaping and recycling ideas. He loves generate discontinuity, however even if it seems that he is trying to intentionally triggerthe viewer, he actually creates this color associations casually. Indeed, the association of “azzurro” (light blue) with “arancione” (orange) is not based on any color theory or color-blind palette.
Daniele Sigalot – Opere artista (BIPOLAR COLORS)
Once Sigalot confessed to be a chronic indecisive. The “Bipolar Colors” series alongside his other series of large post-it “Words” (2013 -ongoing), or the installation “Untitled” (2014 -ongoing), a carpet made by empty red capsules, truly manifesting is fascination for contrasts and paradox and his interest in creating new meanings through misplacing, misunderstanding and confusion.
Ultimately, Sigalot tries to amaze and deceive the mind: these are the only rules of this game that thrives on misunderstandings, both semantic and semiotic. To truly understand his sculptures and installations, it’s sufficient to recover your own playful dimension and to not take too seriously a reality that acclaims and makes art anything, as long as it is incomprehensible. His works are often bittersweet experiences: irreverent messages which make you smile but never make you laugh.
Daniele Sigalot – Opere artista (BIPOLAR COLORS)
