Here's the painting I made for the Darth Vader Exhibition. I must say I'm not an avid fan of the Star Wars series but when i was contacted for this exhibition, being asked to depict the character of Dart Vader, the whole thing sounded exciting. I guess it was curiosity that played an important role, not only in this circumstance. I didn't know much about this character apart from his mask so I started googling about. The concept of this show was Darth Vader as a modern man, symbol of the contradiction between light and dark, rationality and madness. This is absolutely one of the leitmotifs of my output, the opposition of contradictory elements and the contrast between opposites is a fact, of my art and of life. This is was a great point on which I wanted to stress my interpretation, I wanted something Star War-ish but not only that. Something that could be ambiguous and be subject to different interpretations, anywhere, anytime. I just needed to make it universal, universally appealing, embracing something widely common. So i dug deep into the (universally known) past and went for the eternal dichotomy young/grown up. I think that the modern man ultimately is a constant battle between a child and who is going to become. Like Anakin Skywalker (the young child who will become Darth Vader) he holds a great power when he is young and pure, before he is swayed to the dark side by education, society, obligations. The modern man, wants to be strong, to control everything, and the more he grows the less likely is going to return to his original light. I wanted to portray a uncertain symmetry, balance in order to express an uncertain personality, ever torn by who once was and who he's become. May the force (the real one) be with you!
