Ronan Pirozzi

“I explore how expressions of scarification and trauma can lead to the development of identity. Interweaving experiences of personal trauma through the aesthetic placement of the scar and the material potential of steel, constructing a unique dialogue between ephemerality and material potential. Exploring the material potential of steel allows me to physically create a sight of trauma and achieve a relief like scarring structure on the materials surface, using welding as an aesthetic tool to create scarring. Compositionally, the works abstract structure explores Newcastle’s topography. Welding is used as an aesthetic tool for cartography relating directly to my own identity, upbringing and local urban environment. The employment of steel relates directly to the city of Newcastle’s identity, as an industrial city of material exports.

These works are extremely personal to me, I’ve used repetition in the imagery of my own scar symbolically placed on the works surface through each piece. The work explores my own personal trauma, scarification and development of identity that comes with this experience. Identity then being central to the work, is expanded. I place an emphasis on the welded gestural marks through physical scarification of the material, conveying my own scars as well as a topographical perspective of the environment in which I grew up.”