contemporary

Fragments

We are in pieces.

Fragments.
Shards.
Tiny particles that don’t fit together
Mismatched codes,
Ironically similar
In our flaws and lacks

We walk, but we don’t question the journey.
We don’t understand the path,
It seems deprived of destination and purpose.
We just carry on,
with or without legs
With or without eyes.
We just follow silent orders
Anonymously in the crowds
We dare not to stand out of norm, of compliance
We can’t stop
Catch our breath.
Disrupt traffic,
Rest.
We succumb to the steep climb.
Hopping that the unbridled descent
will shorten the path, spare us, somehow.

We walk, breathe,
we eat and sleep
when possible.
We obey
inevitably.
We are all besieged.
Inside and outside
all the walls in this world.
We are patient and we go mad
We wait, and we hope
that something will change
Someone will save us
Anything will happen
Besides the pain
Despite the fate
Beyond the insanity
Above the oppression
Under the sun
We are scattered all over the place
Living lawful lies
Defying absurdities
Coping with what is.
But what is
Is way less than we deserve

We dream of surviving chaos and catastrophe
Hoping our fate would heal and redeem us.
We surrender to time
Holding to the pieces that are long gone
Whipping the dust off our remains
wipping dry tears off our eyes
We continue,
filled with shivering hope
and whatever is left of
our sacred innocence.

Luciana Mariano (c)

Waiting – acrylics on fine Belgian linen – 180×215 cm

Painting done during the Serlachius Residency in Mänttä, Finland, between March and June 2025.

…and they loved music.
…and they loved music.

1 / 12

First painting:

“ …and they loved music.”

60×90 – acrylics on linen – 2023

The rupture. It can be a war, a divorce, a deception or any reason to relocate. A new job, a new love, a new life. They loved music and they had a story prior the rupture but it no longer works, no longer serves its purpose; it is time leave the wreckage behind and embark on a journey of reconstruction. Heart and objects may be broken. It is never easy to leave what once was your safe ground but it is necessary to take chances towards a new beginning, towards any possibility of being whole again.

*This work and collection are available for acquisition at Maksla XO Gallery, in Riga, Latvia.

https://makslaxogalerija.lv

1This collection consists in 12 pieces, made during a 2 months residency at Serlachius Museum Residency in February-March 2023. All pieces are connected and they are a result of a research and deeper thought about what it means to leave, depart, immigrate, flee, relocate, move, change, restart. If you are leaving your known home and world behind, for any reason, you may experience some of this feelings. Maybe you are relocating for a new job or for love; perhaps you are moving because of a new opportunity, a loss of job, a divorce; or if your country is at war, if you need to escape for better life conditions, or any reason at all…some of this feelings meet everyone. Leaving, for any given reason, deploys a chain of feelings that are common for most situations. It is a kind of mourning, first the overwhelmed feeling of loss, then the various steps that makes you cope with the change, then acceptance and understanding, then adaptation and peace. Not necessarily all those feelings but surely some of them. And it is a very particular experience with common perceptions and feelings. I hope you can identify some of them, but specially I hope you can, after a harsh storm, find yourself again and feel that you found home.

Rest

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A quiet place to rest.
It’s all that is needed at times.
Silence is a supreme gift at troublesome moments.

The perfect song for this moment:

How – John Lennon

How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?
How can I go forward when I don’t know which way to turn?
How can I go forward into something I’m not sure of?
Oh no, oh no
How can I have feeling when I don’t know if it’s a feeling?
How can I feel something if I just don’t know how to feel?
How can I have feelings when my feelings have always been denied?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
And you got to be so strong
And the world is so tough
Sometimes I feel I’ve had enough

How can I give love when I don’t know what it is I’m giving?
How can I give love when I just don’t know how to give?
How can I give love when love is something I ain’t never had?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
You’ve got to be so strong
And the world she is tough
Sometimes I feel I’ve had enough

How can we go forward when we don’t know which way we’re facing?
How can we go forward when we don’t know which way to turn?
How can we go forward into something we’re not sure of?
Oh no, oh no…

Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq7jLEnZw6s&feature=colike