Dedicated To Collages of Chickens: An Interview With Francesca Falli.
Francesca Falli is one of the artists taking part in our online exhibition ‘April Fish’. Based in L'Aquila, Italy, her multimedia collages are a fresh take on Pop Art and are centred around the idea of "Pollage" - the naïve playfulness of the Chicken. We caught up with her to talk about her creative process, her future plans, and why no-one can copy what she does.
‘Chicken of April’
What’s with the chickens?
There are funny aphorisms that inspire my thoughts about my Chickens, such as Making Chickens Laugh, being plucked like a chicken etc. The Chickens are us as humans. Chickens are naive people. In this collective vision, the Chicken is considered a silly animal, gullible, ridiculous.
What does Pop Art mean to you? How has the internet affected the movement?
For me, Pop Art is expressing the involvement of ordinary people in art. Pop Art communicates joy and people need joy. The spread of new technologies in art suggests that we are breaking the patterns that, until now, created the universe of contemporary art. I honestly don't think that my "Chickens" have been influenced by the internet as I am very independent from social media. Sometimes I even forget to publish my events, exhibitions and works of mine that have won awards.
Do you find that people copy your work or your style, after seeing it on social media?
Some artists have tried to work in my style. Luckily, my collages are very complicated in compositional interlocking and consequently the results of the pseudo-artists who tried to copy me didn’t work in the same way. One thing they can't copy from me is the madness inside my thoughts. The madness of endless joints, in my graphic compositions, is guided by the process of psychic automatism typical of the artistic current of surrealism. My folly is to isolate myself from the outside world and enter my inner world, an inner world that is mine alone. This is my madness.
The madness of my works is not linked to my experiences but it is linked to an endless creative process. My works are recognizable precisely for this madness and the use of Chickens.
Each of my works is formed first in my mind. Before working with digital media I have to draw crazy ideas about chickens on paper so as not to lose the idea and sometimes when I go digitally on the computer they totally change.
‘I AM FULL OF CHICKENS’
You were previously a graphic designer. How do the skills you learned then translate into your art now? Do you still do graphic design work?
I still work as an advertising and editorial graphic designer. The work as a graphic designer is bound to the needs of the client, however, my work as an artist is free and is not bound by the demands of advertising.
How do the skills you learned as a designer translate into your art now?
The study of graphic composition, compositional balances and chromatology come together in my works, translating into images that are the result of my feelings and what I've experienced in my life. Some of my life experiences are represented as disastrous events in my work. For example, the earthquake that struck my city in 2009 influenced the visual landscape of my compositions thereafter. True art is knowing how to express ourselves. When I create I am happy, I am estranged from the world. I isolate myself for an indefinite time, and I enter my true world.
You’ve said that you create work on paper first and then “elaborate” on a computer. Can you unpack what you mean by “elaborate”?
Creativity, ideas, artistic thoughts are born in different kinds of moments.
For this reason, I fix my ideas - consisting of a few graphic signs - on sheets or pieces of paper that I have at my disposal in that moment. After this quick creative process, I elaborate and refine my artistic works on the computer.
If you could spend a week at Warhol’s Factory in 1960s New York what would you do in that time?
Working and living moments of creation with Andy would have been the dream of any artist who works with Pop Art. If I could spend a week in his Factory, I would create a series of colourful chickens that can be reproduced with the silk-screen printing technique.
Do you read and/or create comics? How do you use text and speech in your work?
I don't read or create comics. For me, writing is an image, and the words become representation. The fonts used in my works become part of the graphic composition and the incomplete sentences join the symbolic elements together.
‘Friends of Chickens’
Many of your works are drawn on mirrors, what sort of pens do you use?
Mine is a mixed technique, let's say that I don't like talking about the technical procedure. I use permanent markers, acrylics and work with digital printing.
You were hoping to take part in last year’s Artexpo New York. Have you taken part in any New York art fairs before? Do you think they are worth the money?
The New York art fair was only moved from April 2020 to October 2021 due to the pandemic. I have attended some art events in New York, but I have never attended art fairs in the United States. Exhibiting at Artexpo New York will be my first experience, I hope my art dealer will be able to sell some "Chicken".
You seem to have quite a consistent art style. How long did it take for you to find your art niche?
During my time as an artist, I have had many artistic styles. I worked with the figurative and the abstract, and created works that are a combination of painting and sculpture. But the style I love most is my latest one dedicated to the collages of Chickens. In the course of my life as an artist, I tried many techniques and, in each experimentation, I tried to be recognizable for my style. I have been working since 2014 with the style of "Pollage", the works of these years are much loved by the public and I think I will never abandon it.
