Artist research- Bruno Catolano

Whilst on a trip to Venice, I visited a small gallery called Galleria Ravagnan, which I discovered shortly after leaving the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. I filmed this short clip above. As soon as I entered the gallery, I was immediately struck by a sculpture positioned at the front of the space: *The Traveller* by Bruno Catalano. It was a powerful piece that instantly captured my attention.

Seeing the work in person had a much greater impact on me than viewing photographs of it online. I had come across Catalano's sculptures before, but experiencing them firsthand was a real privilege. The fragmented figure and dramatic use of negative space created a sense of both presence and absence at the same time. Despite large sections of the body being missing, the sculpture still felt complete and full of meaning.

As I stood looking at the work, I immediately thought about the ceramic piece I would like to create. What interested me most was the hollowness within the sculpture and the way the empty space became an essential part of the artwork rather than something missing from it. This relates closely to my own ideas of creating a shell-like form that suggests a mother and child without fully describing them.

Catalano's work has encouraged me to think more deeply about how I might use negative space within my own ceramic piece, like i did with the wax crayons and clear perspex. Rather than focusing solely on the form itself, I am interested in how the spaces within and around the sculpture can communicate ideas of connection, memory and presence.