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Carnovsky
Carnovsky is an art/design duo composed of Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla. They are active in Milan since 2006. They create images that interact with chromatic stimuli. Each image is the result of the overlapping of 3 layers, each one printed in a primary color. Through a colored light or a colored filter you can discover the layers of the composite image. This technique is called RGB because the colors of the lights/filters are Red, Green and Blue.
Original illustration “The Hanging Gardens of Babylone” by Carnovsky for Impression Originale, with the 3 separate RGB layers.
Do you work at night or during the day?
S: During the day mostly, but I can work during the night.
F: When I was at the university, I always preferred to work late at night, but now I definitely prefer to work during the day.
What is the most amazing present you ever received?
S: A beautiful straw purse that belonged to my grandmother when she was 18, I received it some time after she passed away. In the small internal pocket I found a 1 cent Colombian peso coin coined in 1979, the year I was born. It fills my heart with the sweetest memories and endless gratitude.
F: Probably when I was kid the yellow castle Lego set.
What is your source(s) of inspiration, what moves you?
Everyday life, nature, literature, cinema, art, a memory, a dream, people, an image, a tiny plant coming out from a crack…
The artist you crave for (at the moment)
S: De Chirico, Escher, David Hockney… and artists whose work deals with light such as James Turrell, Dan Flavin, Olafur Eliasson…
F: I still find inspiration in different artists from different cultures and ages from the mannerist painters to the Futurist from Japanese printmakers to the post-modern designers.
Left: Original illustration “The Hanging Gardens of Babylone” by Carnovsky for Impression Originale. Middle: The Carnovsky worktable in Milano. Right: Carnovsky Exhibition at Pascal Johanssen gallery, Berlin
Your favorite museum, your favorite drink
S: I love all kinds of museums: art, natural history, nautical, artifacts, and botanical gardens; it is difficult to name one…in Milan, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
Fresh water and spicy mezcal margarita.
F: My favorite museum is probably the archaeological museum in Athens. My favorite drinks are a straight Vodka Martini or a Negroni.
If I say « paper » what is first coming to your mind?
S: Wall… book… touch… smell
F: Books
Mention a quote you feel is creatively inspiring
S: “The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you’re an artist.” David Hockney.
F: I always love the motto of the publisher and printer Aldo Manunzio: Festina Lente an oxymoron that can be translated with “make haste slowly”.
If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
S: Maybe a naturalist.
F: When I was a kid my dream was to become an ornithologist because I love birds. Maybe that could have been my career.
Topics and causes that matter to you?
Finding beauty in everything we see.
Original wallpaper installation at Jaguarshoes, London, by Carnovsky.
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