Fire

Since 1951 I have not used clay, plasticine and all other stuccos used to model with the hands or with a stick. Cutting into wax with fire is a technique that can be used with pieces of wax no larger than a meter square […]. For big sculptures I usually use chalk. Thus cutting into a block of chalk with pneumatic chisels is done to vaguely represent a shape. The final surface is always obtained by cutting into it and to this regard I think I may define my work as a series of cuts that approach the final shape through successive abrasions and digging. In this sense, my fine-tuning on fused works is also similarly configured: electrical cutting into metal in the rough grooves to create and increase ulcerations in the material, milling smooth and concave surfaces with heavy mechanical tools to obtain rips in the metal.

(Francesco Somaini)