Purgatorio and Spare (Thinker)
- Jonathan Santoro
- Penn Museum
-
Independent Creative Production Grant
Jonathan Santoro, Hellmouth, Cast urethane with chrome finish, powder coated aluminum, arduino programmed light and fog machine, 2024.
Jonathan Santoro will pursue a two-part project: an immersive, large scale time-based installation, Purgatorio, and an experimental public work, Spare (Thinker). Both projects will use an amalgamation of the car and the body as a metaphorical framework to explore ideas surrounding mortality, moral dichotomies, and mental health. Building on visual language from his 2023 project, In Praise of Folly, in Purgatorio, Santoro intends to present an assortment of car parts that play with popular depictions of the “sentient car” using pre-programmed lighting, sound effects, and recorded monologue. Formally, these structural elements will be inspired by infographic pioneer Fritz Kahn and, similarly, will conflate mechanical automobile components with human anatomy.
Spare (Thinker) will be showcased at the Race Street Pier in Philadelphia, along the Delaware River. The sculpture will be in conversation with Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, a masterpiece that references and considers ideas surrounding moral dichotomies and mortality through the writing of Dante Alighieri. This new sculpture will be similar to sculptures from In Praise of Folly, presenting an emotive face on a hubcap set within a tire, steeped in existential indecision. Spare (Thinker) will be facilitated by the Delaware River Waterfront and will be on display in summer 2024.