Image courtesy the artist.

Diego Perrone (b. 1970, Asti, Italy) shares an unusual, yet lyrical photograph framed within a Thai pagoda. In the distant horizon line of the photograph, a chicken appears to dive head first towards the ground within the pagoda interior. The candid moment was captured by the artist during his travels in Southeast Asia many years ago and was selected by Perrone now for its humor and satirical poignancy. Playful yet sad, the image reflects Perrone’s ongoing interest in photography and the ephemeral spontaneity of the "decisive moment.” 

“This is a chicken jumping off a pagoda. 
I consider it a note. It could be my way to try to remember things and places. 
I acknowledge a poetic gesture in it.”

- Diego Perrone, May 2020

Diego Perrone
I Pensatori di Buchi, 2002
Lambda print
49.5 x 57.25” / 126 x 145.47cm
Edition 4 of 5
DP2002-012.4

Photography is crucial in Perrone’s practice, providing a visual record of personal experience and an opportunity to create new narratives. Perrone first received critical attention for his photographic project As if fascinated by what remains still in the background (1999). The series was staged and photographed in the artist’s hometown of Asti, Italy, just north of Milan where the influential Arte Povera movement first originated in the late 60s. The images depict residents of Asti holding large animal horns and antlers, fusing personal narrative with provincial history.

Diego Perrone
I Pensatori di Buchi, 2005
Lambda print
49.25 x 49.25” / 125 x 125cm
Edition 3 of 5
DP2005-002.3

Perrone’s following series “I Pensator Di Buchi (The Thinker of Holes),” debuted at Casey Kaplan in 2002, marking his first solo-exhibition in New York. For this project, the artist and his father spent months digging large holes on their property in Asti. Perrone then photographed the excavations, both alone and with subjects shown engaging with the laborious interventions to the landscape. The images recall the photographic documentation of performance and land art prevalent in the late 60s and 70s, while also maintaining a painterly quality. Profoundly ritualistic, the series reflects Perrone's ongoing exploration of the elusive multiplicity of the photograph.

Diego Perrone
I Pensatori di Buchi, 2002
Lambda print
31.5 x 31.5” / 80 x 80cm
Edition 1 of 5
DP2002-003.1

“We are always scared when there’s no mystery, when everything is said. I really get scared when art is clear and everything is out there. You don’t fall in love with art if everything has already been said.”

- Diego Perrone, 2010

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, Rome, March 2020; Claude Monet, The Rouen Cathedral, Oil on canvas, 1892-93

Claude Monet, The Rouen Cathedral, Oil on canvas, 1892-93; St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, Rome, March 2020