Gilding Workshops with Patrizio Travagli

Daily sessions: September 28 – October 1, from 3 – 6pm
 802 N. Nevada Street, Colorado Springs, CO

Free and open to the public

Pre-registration required for each session
For more information and to register, contact Blair E. Huff:  blair.e.huff@ColoradoCollege.edu
Downloadable enrollment form, when completed e-mail to Ms. Huff: The Golden Touch Workshop Enrollment Form

 

The Golden Touch Exhibition and Reception:

a one night showcase of workshop objects
Friday, October 2, 4-7pm

The Golden Touch

Acclaimed Florentine artist Patrizio Travagli uses the ancient technique of gilding to transform the value and appeal of personal objects. Fascinated by the interaction of light and metallic leaf, Travagli draws upon the act of memorializing inherent in the gilding process and its finished product. In this workshop, participants will gild an everyday object  stripping it of its utility and investing it with meaning, memory, and aesthetic value.

“The act of gilding is an act of memory. Covering the surface of an object with the noble metal exalts it. What is light and shadow becomes part of the environment through an anamorphic distortion. In the act of covering the object, you are also revealing it. Like a mirror it becomes a reflection, your own personal reflection.The aim of the project is to see and feel how people respond to a shift in their perspective through the use of gold in gild.ing. During the workshop, participants will be asked to select and transform an object that means something to them. Something they love and it is part of their life.  

The gilding will be made, for reasons of cost of material and processing difficulties, with leaves of brass.   The object’s status will be elevated by the metallic layer, but at the same time it will become useless. Once gilded, the objects will be exhibited together as if they were in a warehouse (a place full of memories), to establish a dialogue with each other and with the visitors of the exhibition. At the end of the show, each workshop participant recovers possession of the object, so it can go back to its own dimension of everyday life – with the added value of gold.” — Patrizio Travagli

Presented by the Colorado College Art Department and sponsored by the Mellon Foundation Arts in the Liberal Arts: Artist-in-Residence Grant