Exhibition Review: Robert Polidori's "Total Gnosis Enigma" at Kasmin Gallery
© Robert Polidori.Villa dei Misteri #2, Pompeii, Italia, 2017. Archival pigment print mounted to dibond, 57 x 76 inches.
Written by Maggie Boccella
So much of pop culture is obsessed with the idea of time travel. Stepping back into the past, understanding better those who came before us. Stepping into a police box, or a magic tree house, or stepping between some odd-looking rocks, and suddenly being able to see a world before us — before industrialization, before technology. We are obsessed with the idea of meeting our ancestors and understanding what about them helped shape us today.
Robert Polidori allows his audience to do just that, via the vibrancy and tact of his newest exhibition, Total Gnosis Enigma. Shot in and around Pompeii, Italy, Enigma allows viewers a peek into first-century Roman homes, painted with beautiful murals depicting scenes of nature and of daily life. His use of a large-format camera gives a new context to already important archaeological finds, using exposures of up to five minutes to allow photos of the historical artwork to be printed to scale, at the same size they appear in person.
© Robert Polidori. Villa dei Misteri #1, Pompeii, Italia, 2017. Aqueaous Inkjet on natural fiber paper mounted on Dibond, 50 x 63 inches.
A large portion of Total Gnosis Enigma is dedicated to one particular ruin — Villa dei Misteri, or Villa of the Mysteries, a popular and well-preserved dwelling famous for its fresco depictions of Bacchic rituals. Polidori, a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, employed long exposures using only natural light to capture the frescoes’ intimate details. Largely preserved in ash from Pompeii’s eruption in 79 CE up until the villa’s initial excavation in 1909, the artworks were restored between 2013 and 2015, two years’ prior to Polidori’s visit.
Polidori’s photos are more than merely archival capturings of the Villa dei Misteri’s history — more than candid photographs taken to preserve the look of a site in the moment, to be pored over later by archaeologists and historians. They are not simply a record, but an invitation to ponder: what may have happened in these rooms? Who painted these murals? What was it like to live under the watchful eye of frozen figures, trapped forever in the midst of an ancient ritual?
© Robert Polidori. Bird and figs fresco panel, Villa Poppaea, Oplontis, Italia, 2017. Archival pigment print mounted to dibond, 63 x 50 inches.
© Robert Polidori. Basket of figs, Villa Poppaea, Oplontis, Italia, 2017. Archival pigment print mounted to dibond. 63 x 50 inches.
In a way, Polidori is capturing something just as important as the physical space and its significance to Italian history. He is unearthing a memory system thousands of years old, a set of cultural standards long buried by volcanic ash. Each mural — particularly the seven of Villa dei Misteri — captures important elements of Roman life, what citizens valued religiously, visually, and personally. None of the grotesque imagery usually associated with Pompeii is present — Polidori’s work lives entirely within some of the best preserved sights in the city, free from view of ash-encased bodies or crumbling, once-great buildings.
Polidori captures the lived experiences of these frescoes, what they mean beyond their base aesthetic value. Some of the paint has chipped away, large swaths of grey cutting through plants and faces like Michael Ende’s Nothing, but their sentiments remain the same. Polidori’s camera presents us with a TARDIS to another dimension, some world beyond our own that we do not have the capability to understand. We can only grasp bits and pieces, reflections and refractions of what has been left behind in their wake. Portions of rituals, and of places we have never been and can never go.
Installation view of Robert Polidori: Total Gnosis Enigma at Kasmin. April 22–May 15, 2021. Photo by Christopher Stach.
"I’m interested in habitat as a psychological force,” Polidori said to The Brooklyn Rail. “What interests me is what human beings do to architecture. And how they use it and how it shapes them...You put on walls, what you want to be or what you think you are."
The villas’ previous residents echo in Polidori’s photographs — spectres just beyond our realm of understanding, but imbued in every paint fleck and worn down floor tile. Their lives bring essence to the work, an understanding of those who came before and the way they continue to influence our lives. Polidori opens a portal into the past for us — a time traveler out of place, with only a camera to open the door.
Total Gnosis Enigma is on display at the Kasmin Gallery until May 15th.
