Venice Installation

Between the stars and the sea

Venice, Italy

2019

Digital C-Print, 18" x 24"

Proposal Renderings

Currently on view at the Venice Biennale satellite show "Visions" curated by Its Liquid

Text Excerpt from Its Liquid curatorial team:

"Combining his background in zen meditation and high-end construction, Adam Marelli paints possibilities of water. Unlike building on land, where materials are added to create forms, his painting removes water to reveal stylized architectural forms carved into lacunae of open sea surfaces. The opening of these voids parallels the process of Zen meditation, or zazen-a minimalist, seated practice. Silence occupies emptiness to generate an immaterial landscape we may navigate from within. Here, stillness is the move."

Craco installation

The Three Seas

Craco, Italy

2019

Digital C-Print, 18" x 24"

Proposal Renderings

Currently on view at the Venice Biennale satellite show "Visions" curated by Its Liquid

Text Excerpt from Its Liquid curatorial team:

"Combining his background in zen meditation and high-end construction, Adam Marelli paints possibilities of water. Unlike building on land, where materials are added to create forms, his painting removes water to reveal stylized architectural forms carved into lacunae of open sea surfaces. The opening of these voids parallels the process of Zen meditation, or zazen-a minimalist, seated practice. Silence occupies emptiness to generate an immaterial landscape we may navigate from within. Here, stillness is the move."

Matera Installation

The Ocean Room

Matera, Italy

2017-2019

Digital C-Print, 18" x 24"

Proposal Renderings for the 2019 European Cultural Capital Award for Matera (2019)

The Concept

There is an ancient connection between the city of Matera and ocean.  Traces of marine life are embedded in the stones used to build the sassi.  Small fossils are spread throughout the soft tufa and serve as an ever present reminder that the land beneath Matera is even more ancient than the city itself.

In conjunction with Matera’s European Cultural Capital designation for 2019 is an opportunity to explore the distant past and bring to life the imaginary underwater worlds from millions of years ago.  The “Ocean Room” is an installation that allows visitors to experience the recent history of the city and the distant history of its maritime roots all in a single room. 

This exhibition is in loving memory of our dear friend Forrest Jesse and the many ways he touched this project and our lives. 

Observation Temple

2016

Pen and ink drawings 19" x 24"

Digital renderings

Concept

The ocean is the largest unexplored landscape on the planet, but we are all curious as to what lies in its depths.  Only with the invention of s.c.u.b.a. and underwater photography did the world begin to see what lies below the surface of the ocean.  

The reflective surface of water visually divides the land from the sea.  This division disconnects people’s view of the oceans.  If we, explorers, could share what we have seen underwater, it would have a profound effect on the way the ocean is treated, preserved, and honored.  The Observation Temple is a sculpture designed to frame the ocean in a way that people can see below the surface in an environment that promotes the idea that the ocean is a realm to be studied, explored, and honored.  

Most of the world has only seen the ocean through photographs and films.  While they are both excellent starting points, every explorer knows that when we experience something in person, it changes the way we see the world.  The Observation Temple creates an immediate experience for viewers as they are invited to view a portal into the ocean at the same time they are above the water.  

The objective of the Observation Temple is to peal back the reflective surface of the ocean and allow a viewer to stare into the ocean and see for the first time, a simultaneous view of life above and below the sea.  

2011 – 2012

In July, Adam Marelli and a small team from the Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation (VPF), will travel to the remote island of Tanna (in the Vanuatu Chain).  Rated as the “Happiest Place on Earth” by the New Economics Foundation, the local population sustains a lifestyle hardly affected by modern culture.  Local tribal Chiefs Jack Kapum and Jimmy Lumé have invited the VPF to develop a carbon negative Artist’s Residency to open an exchange with the global community.  

At the forefront of this incredible gesture, Adam Marelli will be combining his skills as a  professional builder and cultural photographer.  Marelli was invited to work alongside Chief Jimmy Lumé’s small building school to construct an experimental bungalow for artists to live on the Naihné’s land.  The Chief granted design freedom to Marelli and the VPF so they can explore a combination of traditional bamboo architecture and western techniques to create a “Seismically Indifferent” structure, capable of enduring 7.0+ earthquakes and cyclones that are typical on the island.