“Photographic images are more ubiquitous but also even less understood than they were before.”

Meet Giovanni Senisi, Artist in Residence

Meet Giovanni Senisi, an artist and photographer based in Vaughan, Ontario. Giovanni talked to us about giving ideas space, using digital tools to create the “purposeful accidents” that used to involve stepping on negatives, how removing context introduces new perspectives, and allowing the walls at home to become part of the creative process.

Imprimo: Hi Giovanni, You’re answering our Artist in Residence interview from your studio in Vaughan, Ontario. What’s the view from your window?

Giovanni Senisi: I see trees, the sky, and my garden transitioning to cold fall weather. No matter where I am, you’ll frequently catch me taking a moment to look outside. Ideas need space.

I: Where did your interest in photography begin?

GS: From the youngest age I’ve been interested in all forms of creative expression but in university I leaned into photography as a means to quickly and effectively document initial thoughts and ideas. My photographs are often a starting point that are then explored digitally. Back in the day, the traditional darkroom is where I really started to understand captured images as a starting point. I used to go through a lot of effort to eliminate the preciousness of the images by first using a broken camera when shooting and then later stepping on the film negatives to scratch and “damage” them. Now I use digital means to cause those purposeful accidents.

I: Talk to us about working in extreme close-up, as you do in your “AutoExuvium” series. How does that influence the viewer’s perspective on your subject? How does it change the way you think about your subject?

GS: I am very interested in the ways in which a visual detail can tell a story that we might not usually notice. Reading the small scratches and fractures on the surface of a wrecked car in an image that is enlarged and cropped so that it is without context allows me to see it in a completely different way. It starts to look more like skin, or a shell. I’m always looking for visual metaphors for whatever I’m trying to communicate… I usually find them in the details.

I: You’ve been an art and photography teacher for 20 years. When you were a child, was there an art teacher who particularly inspired or encouraged you?

GS: When I was in grade two, the principal of our school visited each class and did a long presentation about Van Gogh. He played the song “Vincent” by Don MacLean and went through a full slide deck of the artist’s paintings, illustrating how we could understand Van Gogh’s emotions by carefully looking at the brushstrokes and details. It was transformative. In my last year of high school I sang the song to my art class as my final project.

I: How much can artistic practice be taught? How much is instinct?

GS: This is a complicated issue. Artistic practice is often confused with technique and skill. Skills can be taught and mastered but mastery of those skills does not make someone an artist. Being an artist is about how one thinks and engages with the world around them and that can also be taught just as much as anything else. Regarding the notion of instinct, you can start off with a lot of that and lose it to neglect while conversely you could be born with none but develop it through experience and exposure.

I: Nowadays we all have a camera in our pocket all the time. Has that changed fine art photography? Has it changed how you work?

GS: Yes, absolutely! Photographic images are more ubiquitous but also even less understood than they were before. The oversaturation has given most people even less time to contemplate meaning and purpose. As a result, metaphorical imagery and allegory has become more important to me. The increased ease with which we can now alter and edit digital images has also changed my work to the extent that apps like Procreate and Photoshop help me to use my photography as more of a digital rough sketch. This last year all of my work has led to a painting instead of a digital c-print as a final image.

I: Past Artist in Residence Antoinette Esmé Hérivel asks: “Do you hang any of your own work in your own home? If so, is there a reason for the pieces you select for yourself?”

GS: Throughout my life I would never, ever display my work in my own home. That changed about a year ago. Soon my work will be everywhere throughout the house. I relate to it differently now. My walls are becoming part of the creative process.

I: OK, quick-fire round: What artist(s), living or dead, would you most like to meet for coffee?

GS: Francesco Borromini and Cy Twombly, at the same time.

I: Is there an unlikely skill you’ve acquired in service of your art?

GS: Photography — considering that it’s always been a means to an end, I’ve come to understand it on a technical level that I would have never imagined.

I: Can you remember the first piece you exhibited publicly?

GS: For sure. As part of a group show — it was a ceramic piece displayed with fermenting pomegranate juice.

I: What’s the last gallery you visited?

GS: The Riverbrink Art Museum. Debra Antoncic, their Director/Curator does outstanding work.