The deception of three-dimensional graffiti
The first time we met Peeta in person was during the Main Street Collective (Hausammann Gallery, Cortina) on 1 March 2014, but the memory of his works still springs to mind. Among the many talented street artists present at the event, Peeta, stage name Manuel Di Rita, captivates with his ability to literally make the subjects come out of his canvases. The illusion of something coming out of the drawing in the painting or on a wall made us think we were under the influence of alcohol or drugs (which we believe happened in his company, but that’s another story!). What we are telling you is instead a three-dimensional journey on the walls of small and big cities.
Can you explain what sculptural lettering is?
In general, it is a form of lettering that studies characters in order to render them illusorily three-dimensional. In my case in particular, it starts with a real study of sculpture and volumes, the creation of plastic letters and then rendering them through painting even on two-dimensional planes (walls, canvases).
Why did you choose street art as a profession?
It was quite automatic. Initially I did graffiti as something of a side dish to my ‘normal life’, which included studying, then as an older person working. Gradually, however, I realised how much I was simply trying to make the most of everything I did (studying art and design as well as working in the same field) in order to apply it to graffiti. Graffiti had become inseparable from the rest of my life and gradually absorbed it and it was all a fluid and spontaneous process. The real turning point was perhaps when I started creating and selling canvases to support myself at university: there I realised that my passion could also be my source of income, that graffiti could become a job, I didn’t know exactly to what extent, but I knew it was possible.
What can art bring to street life?
Street art modifies urban spaces and with them their liveability, generating emotional as well as rational reactions among those who live those spaces on a daily basis and altering their quality of life possibly in a positive way.
In your opinion, is street art undervalued? Why?
Let us say yes, if we look at the sometimes downgrading label that is placed on all culture (street art, graffiti) inspired by a historical background that has often had little artistic value and has always been at the centre of criticism and controversy. It is also seen as something ‘of the street’ and therefore of less value, as if its extreme usability and gratuitousness relegated it to something superfluous and too easy to find, since it is outside the institutional circuits that indicate art as something rare and precious.
On the other hand, it is to this day overrated and over-exploited. It is a simple and effective language to speak to people and therefore the preferred media: not only on an artistic level, but also on a marketing level, for example, it represents an easy way, as it is quick and intrusive. But it does not have to be the only one.
The letters are almost an obsession. What do they mean to you?
The letters that I paint are the letters of my name and painting them is like self-representation for me. After dozens of years of painting the same letters, however, I must admit that although they have remained the basis of my compositions, they have taken on increasingly abstract forms, becoming pretexts for geometric, graphic and aesthetic studies.
How do you approach your works?
It depends a lot on what kind of work I do, the approaches change enormously.
When I paint walls there is a very strong emotional component and a big influence of context. My walls sometimes follow pre-drawn plans, others are totally improvised. The architectural structures, the lighting but also the atmosphere or the people who frequent the place strongly determine the outcome of my work.
With regard to the canvases, on the other hand, I partly follow an emotional approach, the influence of my emotions or the context in which I work, and on the other hand a rational approach, an almost scientific study that makes the canvases a personal aesthetic exercise rather than a dialogue with the public.
Finally at the antipodes is the approach towards sculptures: highly technical, a legacy from my past as a designer, following well-established steps of design and execution.
In the world of street art is there anyone particularly Notorious to you?
Starting from the fact that ‘notorious’ has a negative connotation I am not sure who to point to, but sympathetically I could say Zed1, some of his very explicit works have certainly made him ‘notorious’!
