Francesca Gabbiani - Hot Panoramas
Francesca Gabbiani (@francesca_gabbiani) won’t be winning any California tourist board commissions with her latest series that prominently views LA’s iconic palm trees through a post-apocalyptic filter. Except these views are no Hollywood nightmare. They’re inspired by the real wildfires that have been recurring in California, and across the world, with increasing and alarming frequency.
I’ve been to Los Angeles. I’ve driven the streets, gazing up at the taller-than-I’d-expected palm trees pointing towards cloud free, baby blue skies. They make you feel so happy to be alive, it’s no wonder they feature in countless movies and TV shows. To see them in flames, set against a smoke filled sky, is unsettling.
Gabbiani’s technique is to collage and layer small colourful cutouts on top of a single, smooth background. The contrast makes the foreground elements pop off the paper, occasionally literally. Some elements float ever so gently off the paper and because the overall imagery is so straightforward these works appear deceptively simple. But there is meticulous precision in the colours and cuts. You’ll want to spend some time studying up close, and once you step back again you’ll further appreciate the necessity of a simplified composition in order to make a stark impact.
The largest work, set against a black night sky, at first appears to be fireworks. Except those sparks are shards of burnt palm fronds blowing off of the trees in the wind. Other nighttime scenes use the moon’s glow to illuminate melting ice sheets. I thought these were photos when I first walked into the room. But even more surprising was the photorealistic imagery of burning palms that remained in my head long after I’d left, despite having seen no such actual thing.
Being stuck in my head is a measure of success for both the art and its message. It would have been far too easy to project environmental foreboding with disaster tropes and over the top symbolism, but Gabbiani has taken a different approach. The artist has made works that are hauntingly beautiful and that you’ll want to return to. Maybe that’s the most unsettling thing of all: the beauty of disaster.
Plan your visit
‘Hot Panoramas’ at Cedric Bardawil (@CedricBardawil) until 20 May
Visit francescagabbiani.com and follow @francesca_gabbiani on Instagram for more info about the artist.
🖼️ Want more art? Visit the What’s On page to see a list of recommended shows, sorted by closing date. Don’t miss ‘em!