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| 23 January 2009 – 29 March 2009 |
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| Blob, 2008 polystyrene, toothpaste 50 x 50 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist, Galleria Fonti, Napoli Photo: Valentina Muscedra |
| The work of art's title recalls the name of a famous sci-fi movie with Steve McQueen, directed by Irvin S. Yearworth in 1958. A monstrous gelatinous Blob sows terror in a small American township, while a group of kids tries to find the Blob's weakspot in their endeavour to defeat it. Back in the fifties this film became a kind of symbol of the fears and anxieties of a whole generation terrified by the threat of potential nuclear attacks. Nicola Gobbetto seems to want to dedicate this work to the state of mind portrayed in the movie, alluding to a gamut of widespread fears, devoid of any specific or real shape, to which the modern generation is prey too. Yet he translates that threat using a modern, very topical vocabulary comprising a small work of art made up of such common-or-garden objects as toothpaste. The sculpture reflects the Blob's shapelessness, which is a key element in this work, akin to some kind of primordial germinative stage in the movie monster's development: a highly visible "thing" that is more alien than frightening. The use of such materials as toothpaste, the acid blue tone adopted, and the indefinability of its shape also reveal the artist's skill in undermining our certainties regarding the physical nature of a work of art, clearly highlighting his attempt to trigger doubts and raise questions rather than to provide absolute answers and reassuring definitions. |
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| Blob, 2008 polystyrene, toothpaste 50 x 50 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist, Galleria Fonti, Napoli Photo: Valentina Muscedra |
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