Carlo Cane

You started out as a goldsmith before moving into painting. Was this a natural transition? Yes, I think so. The work of a goldsmith calls for precision and rigour.

Do you see any parallels between your work as a goldsmith and your painting? Yes, both share many key fundamental characteristics: precision, rigour, design and creativity.

Your work is very architectural. Do you have any technical training? No, my architectural works are a return to the techniques of metalworking and, in particular, to miniatures painted in enamel.  When I was young I would look at the artwork of Imperial Rome during the rules of Hadrian and Trajan through the remains of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

Your architectural landscapes have been described as ‘futuristic’ yet are devoid of human life, why is this? Man is not there physically but he is present through his buildings.

Your architectural landscapes move between realism and the fantasy. Thinking particularly about the series of works you have shown with Coates and Scarry where houses are suspended amidst ‘unreal’ canopies, how does this reflect your own view of the future? The future I envisage is one of a growing harmony between us and the environment.

In the body of work you have shown with Coates and Scarry, houses and municipal blocks float in space, suspended amidst treescapes, the natural world encroaching inwards on urbanity, yet the buildings appear cocooned gently enveloped amongst the flora. Is this deliberate? Are they intended as havens? Yes… I certainly wanted to create that feeling.  I want to make people dream by destabilizing the viewer and encouraging the viewer to ask him or herself questions.  They [the houses] are paradises.

I like the way your paintings have a very universal feel – they seem to belong to no specific location. Is it your intention to make work that appeals on many levels? Anyone who stands before my work is free, without barriers, unconfined and can get lost in their thoughts at the precise moment of viewing and the viewer finds that he or she can travel in their mind to constantly shifting worlds.

When I look at your work, I want to know the story behind that piece. Do you imagine the characters that inhabit the buildings you paint? To return to what I previously said about freedom, as one interprets one of my paintings, at that moment various thoughts spring into one’s mind.  Those thoughts can be positive or negative and they lead you to imagine, to dream and escape reality.  I can see myself living in one of these places, they could be the perfect haven, with much love for life and for all that surrounds us.  Just think, you could find yourself sitting at the table with a lovely squirrel.  It would be fantastic!

I’m intrigued by the environmental aspects of your work. What do you imagine the future holds for this planet? I am not a fanatical ecologist, but a lover of nature and all forms of life.  Perhaps we have reached a tipping point where man’s selfishness and aggressiveness has begun to remodel the land according to his own gratification without consideration for the fact that this beautiful planet is shared, it is not ours alone.  I think it is absolutely essential that we reestablish a world in which every living thing is allowed its own space.  My paintings bear witness to this.

Can you tell us about any exciting projects you’ve got coming up, for example Trailblazers in Hong Kong?

Thank you to Coates and Scarry for giving me the opportunity to show my work in such an exciting and vibrant international context.  The dynamism and talent of Coates and Scarry is an explosive mix.

Interview by Lottie Storey. Translated by Elizabeth Lloyd.