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| Icono Emoter |
"The figure in Icono Emoter, for example, is richly detailed and adroitly constructed. Bizarre and familiar, the persona tilts towards his right hand encased in a dragon or triffid-like head. It seems to be a combination of the human and the vegetable, as well as the human and the mechanical, the result of a cross-fertilization of species, if you will, of the intermingling of organic and inorganic."
~ Kenneth Radu (Adamo Macri’s Triffid and I)
"Resisting temptation to disappear utterly in these silent portrayals, I shall end my confession with a comment on Macri’s complex portrait Icono Emoter because it fits in so well with the theatrical quality of the other faces. It also reminds me that icon, or ikon to use a traditional spelling, is a symbolic image, usually religious in import, a major art form of the eastern Orthodox churches. The images were never meant to be realistic portrayals of human beings, but metaphorical representations of adoration, the sanctity of holiness in the individual saint, and divine connections with the world, so I believe."
~ Kenneth Radu (Ghost in the Wings: Macri and Me)
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“Cosmic puppet, cosmic show!”
~ Bob Boldt (American artist, writer, poet, film/video maker)
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“Imagine archaeologists find your pictures in a few hundred years: they will write long essays on how men looked like in our times.”
~ Petra Mattes (Artist, Rottenburg Germany)
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“Fantastic! This is absolutely Amazing, my favourite one so far. It’s profound and should spark a film concept.”
~ Alex Monty Canawati (Filmmaker 20th Century Studios)
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"Oberon De La Carnivale Venice. It’s so beautiful."
~ Michael K Waterman (Multi-media artist, New York, Savannah Georgia)
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"Incredibly, wow! I love it, I see you standing in the wings of a stage, looking incredible."
~ Judith Desrosiers Malaney (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Researcher, Wallasey UK)
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"Il Pagliaccio, with a friend on hand. Excellent."
~ John Felice Ceprano (Ottawa rock sculptor, painter)
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| 31 x 31 cm |
Macri's striking black mohawk, contrastingly shaved on the sides, resonates with punk imagery and ancestral warrior motifs, acting as an extension of the psyche. Makeup and applied forms around his face—wing-like and fin-like elements on the shoulders—transform it into a hybrid mask, evoking ancestral creatures and neural connections. This creates a ceremonial, animalistic, and technological visage.
The attire features a large ruff collar, enhancing the theatricality and serving as a visual link between body and performance. One arm is relaxed, grounding the figure, while the other touches the ruff and holds a puppet: a greyish, reptilian dinosaur toy that balances menace with playful animation. This puppet symbolizes a core concept of the work.
Introducing the reptilian toy, Macri references Paul MacLean's model of the brain's triune structure, representing the primitive "reptilian brain" responsible for survival instincts. The puppet embodies this foundational aspect—crude yet durable—rendered as a childlike toy, an evolutionary echo now rendered as a theatrical prop.
However, Icono Emoter is not a simplistic depiction of neuroscience. Macri crafts a tension between the three brain regions: the reptilian, the limbic, and the neocortex. The puppet represents the reptilian, while the figure's hyper-stylized face portrays an over-managed emotional state, termed “face drama,” suggesting a blend of spontaneity and calculated performance. The work questions whether emotional expressions are authentic or rehearsed cultural displays.
The title Icono Emoter intertwines these inquiries. "Icono" refers to image and likeness, linking to iconography and the historical significance of images as vehicles of veneration. "Emoter" highlights exaggerated emotional presentation, especially in performance cultures, creating a figure that embodies both an image and a generator of staged emotions—reflecting both performance and representation. The title hints at a subversive angle, challenging conventional notions of self, emotion, and sacred representation.
Macri’s interest in masking and the blurred boundaries between artist and artwork is evident. The work references Greek theatrical traditions, particularly the masks of Thalia and Melpomene, representing comedy and tragedy. However, instead of presenting a clear divide, Macri blends these elements into an ambiguous expression. The figure's seriousness leans toward absurdity, while the puppet oscillates between playfulness and menace, collapsing the traditional separation of comedy and tragedy into an unstable self-performance.
Formally, Macri's strengths shine through. The spotlight creates high-contrast anatomical modelling, with shadows suggesting psychological voids. The composition’s precision—manifest in the vertical mohawk, the ruff’s radial expansion, and the dynamic alignment of arms and puppet—guides the viewer's gaze. His meticulous attention to detail in makeup and costume blends sculpture and portraiture, transforming the body into a constructed icon, both photographic and sculptural in nature.
Conceptually, Icono Emoter aligns with Macri’s ongoing exploration of identity, contamination, and the interaction of organic and constructed forms. Here, "contamination" signifies psychological and cultural influence rather than biological. The primitive layers of the brain blend into contemporary expressions of self, with media-influenced emotional codes shaping intimate feelings. The work invites reflection on the figure as a diagram of the human experience, negotiating our reptilian instincts, limbic emotions, and neocortical narratives.
Ultimately, Icono Emoter reveals an embodied map of brain evolution through theatre. The reptilian puppet, stylized emotional expression, and hyper-conscious staging together illustrate how we image and emote. Macri exposes the mechanisms by which icons and the emotions they convey are crafted, exaggerated, and sometimes deconstructed within our performances of self.
Icono Emoter, 2014
Photography: Chromogenic C-print
69 x 64 cm
31 x 31 cm Edition: 4
