Lickylicks
In collaboration with the shepherd Enea Giunti. Salt stones, iron. Various dimension, 2023/24
This work stems from my childhood spent surrounded by goats and their daily lives.
Licking is a human action that can be defined as ‘passing the tongue over something to clean it or as a sign of emotional attachment’.
It is legitimate to think that this action may have become, or could become, a useful necessity for human survival.
In 2023, a shepherd friend and I, along with the goats in his herd, decided to undertake this sculptural project. The goats, by metabolic necessity, have to absorb a daily quantity of sodium chloride, commonly known as salt.We chose to exploit this instinctive need of these animals to lick salt to produce organic forms reminiscent of the aesthetics of modern sculpture.A new bond is created between the shepherd and his animals, a kind of collaboration that, while unconscious on the part of the animals, is undertaken with awareness and an aesthetic sense on the part of man. The result of the shapes created by the animals' tongues is left to chance, but it is produced jointly thanks to the action of man, who changes the position of the salt stones as the days go by.On the one hand, these two actions illustrate the intellectual contrast between man and animal, while on the other, the sculptural compositions proposed suggest a repositioning of humans in relation to wild nature.
