Two towers, coasts, poets, mindsets, voices, personas, histories and countries will converge in a single gesture on San Servolo island. New York City-based artist Joseph La Piana’s 20-foot-tall work will skim the rooftops of its surrounding courtyard structures and stand as a monument to lives lost and opportunities missed. It will bring together the poetry of Whitman and Ginsberg, analyzing the American condition over the ebb and flow of time, just as the waves of time and water tease the immediate shore of its island home, the piers of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the beaches of sunny California. La Piana layers text upon text to create a palimpsest of memories, desires, and sorrows that references the constant wars that rage within and without. For La Piana, these tall towers become repositories of meaning and markers of both hope and despair. They represent the twin towers fallen ten years prior and hint at two figures engaged in deep dialogue. They are in the end us, in all of our complexity. They cry, they glow, they speak, and ultimately, they stand
Venice Text Project
Forthcoming event