Franco DeFrancesca

Franco DeFrancesca's Plasma Gel series presents high-gloss, colourful works made up of resin coated digital prints mounted to layers of plywood. These digital/mixed media 'picture objects' represent interpretations of contemporary visual culture charmed by minimalism, modernism, technology and futurism.

Recalling the colour-field and the elemental geometry of mid to late twentieth century post painterly abstraction, minimalism and op-art, these works use digital imaging as a means to navigate the territory between photography and painting, mixing references to photography, painting and television display technology.  Visualizing ephemeral and elusive environments of light, air, fission and liquid crystal luminescence, these works convey notions of the surreal and the sublime that elicit a variety of sensibilities from the quizzical, the mysterious and the light-hearted.  Combining craftsmanship with digital technology in an attempt to create a hybrid art object, the Plasma Gel series explores 'the sophisticated ideal' of modernity, high technology and urbanity as desired both personally and culturally.

"Playing with computer software - working formally with shape, color, composition - I began to have a dialog with what I was doing that conjured up associative elements that informed what I had been experimenting with. The resultant imagery, which had a retro-futuristic, eye candy-ish visual characteristic inspired the name and concept - “Plasma Gels�. Being a bit of a word smith and a passionate observer of advertising, marketing and pop culture in general, “Plasma Gels� had been a sort of brand concept that simultaneously described the works computer generated, hi-tech origin and it’s translucent, liquid crystal visual characteristics.

As I continued to experiment further and develop this series, I wanted to create an artwork that would extend beyond the computer generated image - [re]produced as a print - as a final work of art. Devising solutions to create an art object that combined my computer generated imagery into a mixed media object. Utilizing my carpenters background and my interest in minimalism and hi-design, I began to work with laminated plywood as a base for mounting my computer generated images.

Although plywood did not necessarily have a hi-tech presence about it, the materials industrial quality and minimalist aesthetic complimented the imagery and when combined created a hi-design art object.

Continuing to look for ways to create a finished art work of high finish/high design, I noticed local painters using resin as a top coat, which added a luster and depth that I imagined would compliment the work I had been doing. After further research into how these materials could work together and a period of trial and error, the resin coating - which completely impregnates the image and plywood base - is ironically poured on as a gel and its clear and sumptuous quality - like a candied state between solid and liquid - totally added to the “Plasma Gels� concept."