The main theme central to the foundations of The Long Thing is boredom and ability to get control over this. In order to reach, through a cathartic process, an unborable stage which results in the ability to do everything you want in your life. Inspired by the posthumous novel The Pale King by David Foster Wallace, where he gives us a glimpse into the Offices of Bureaucracy elected as the Temple of Boredom. Alessandro Calabrese started to work using an image scanner and a range of materials associated with deskbound jobs and office supplies: files pocket binders, filing folders, elastic bands and documents, to name a few. Through random movements, shifts and mechanical actions he moved away from figurative representation, blurring the boundaries of reality and accelerating photography into the sphere of abstraction. The continuous repetition of a gesture, in which his choice as an author and the automatization of the machine collide, brings homogeneous images to life. The final body of work consists of a series of images, memes, short performances and installations. Supported by Viasaterna.
Viasaterna, Milan, 2017
Viafarini, Milan, 2019
Mart, Rovereto, 2020