“In 1995 there was a referendum in Italy concerning just how many adverts could be transmitted during a film. Berlusconi wanted to increase the number (and therefore his revenue) He brought out daily on all of his Mediaset channels all of his big presenters and stars who informed the Italian public that their civil rights were being eroded if he was not allowed to increase the number of adverts show on their screens. I switched off my television set in protest against these wordy pretentious presenters who were being paid huge sums to spout complete rubbish about eroded civil rights. I have not switched the TV back on since.”
“To celebrate being free from the idiot box, I decided to make some work about the TV and so collected and opened up a number of them. These paintings are all about the stuff that was inside televisions in the mid 90’s. I have taken small hidden objects, transistors, diodes and resistors and increased their scale to become huge objects in a landscape like environment lit by strong light. Something tiny and unobtrusive becoming iconic and bursting with meaning …. ….. …. maybe – keane ”
Splendid. Barga is simply burgeoning with artistic talent. I’m not sure about some of the music – a good non-committal comment is “If only Beethoven could have heard that…” – but the visual arts are something else.