Bominaco (The Abruzzi) 1988

Editor: Valerie Thornton's "Bominaco (The Abruzzi)," currently housed at the Tate, presents such a faded, haunting image. The figures are ghost-like. What strikes you most when you look at this? Curator: The layering of time, both depicted and experienced, is profound. Consider the repeated motif of figures – above, then captured in the roundel – what do they evoke in you? Editor: A sense of echoes, maybe? Like the past is constantly being re-performed. Curator: Precisely! Thornton masterfully uses the fresco-like style to create a symbolic palimpsest. The original fresco becomes a cultural memory, reinterpreted through her modern lens, asking us to consider what endures and what transforms. Editor: So, it's not just about the figures themselves, but also how they're presented and re-presented? Curator: Exactly. And the implied narrative – figures in procession, then caught in an embrace – speaks to cycles of life, death, and rebirth inherent in cultural consciousness. Editor: I never considered how much the technique itself adds to the meaning! Thanks!