Alberto Seveso is a graphic designer and illustrator. His work is the product of a skillful electronic manipulation of photographs- some he’s taken, some he’s gotten from other photographers, and some he’s bought. Seveso uses the computer to deconstruct the bodies in the photographs into something entirely different, yet he still captures the form, the shading, and substance of the figure that the graphics have replaced.
Working backwards from photographs, Seveso’s work reminds me of the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the 16th century painter who created faces from paintings of fruits and vegetables. There is a word for giving human attributes to non-human objects or beings, anthropomorphism’. Although Seveso starts with a real body, he deconstructs it to the point where it is no longer a realistic figure, and yet the original form, and some key details are still clearly visible and recognizable. The new forms are reminiscent of plant growth or robotic machinery- Seveso has taken something human, and made it not.
While this isn’t a unique thing to do, what I like about Seveso’s work, and why I think it belongs here is the pure sensuality of the forms he uses. The curves and swirls and squiggles and ribbons and colors are all very expressive and to me, sexual. The images seem to suggest that each us has these vibrant, wild, and growing gardens inside of us, hidden by our skins. They seem to say that this is what the essence of a person might be like if you could peel off the outer layer and reveal it, and it is beautiful.
Article by Kayla
