Bosco Sodi on Unpredictable Materials

For your wall works you collect sawdust from carpenters. Is it important to you that the sawdust has had this previous life, and that it is a waste product as opposed to something that you buy directly off the shelf?

For me it is very important that it is a recycled material, and also the uncertainty of getting a different sawdust each time. It makes the outcome less predictable and organic, at the end is all about uniqueness.

What draws you to sawdust?

I wanted to work with an organic material that is unpredictable and is affected by the climate, also something that is not used in painting, something new.

The monochrome works bring so much attention to the surface and the quality of the colour: how it makes you feel, the tonal varieties of one colour. Do you have a preference between working with natural pigments and synthetic ones?

Not all the works are monochrome, but certainly a few of them. I have always been interested in the reaction of the viewer to the color and texture, to the feeling that topographic works create. I've tried to use organic pigments as much as possible, I like that the organic pigments because they are more unpredictable and unique.

I would love to know more about the idea of temporality in your outdoor large-scale artwork Atlantes.

I like to see how the passing of time, the patina, makes the work more unique, more authentic. Also to remind the viewer about the atemporality of things and life.. constant change..

Has the work you make affected the way you think about how we engage with materials in the wider world?

At the end matter is part of us. We are all living creatures and are part of it. For me focusing on the process and the materials is much more important than the outcome. I want to have an alchemist approach...