Who i am
Rigorous styling, geometry, re-spect for proportions. Carlo Sello, a goldsmith/jeweler in Ascona, is a perfectionist. He knows this and doesn't hide it. He has dedicated his life to the search for esthetic satisfaction, without caring about the amount of effort it requires. He grew up in his father's sculpture studio - his father being a sculptor and an antiques expert - developing an acute sensitivity for beauty. His creations defy conventional definitions - now they seem to be jewels, now small works of art, now hypnotic constructions. "My goal is to make unique pieces, in the most ample sense of this definition. I shun simple solutions, stylistic shortcuts. I let myself be guided by emotions, by desires, by symbols". In his atelier in Ascona, discretely positioned in an architectural niche, close enough to the lake promenade to be able to attract the attention of tourists, but distant enough to be able to avoid indiscriminate uproar, Sello exhibits his eccentric and Original piec-es, which at first glance seem to be jewels. But you have to took again, a sideways approach, to gather the essence of his creations. They are united by a key word, research. Intellectual, above all, but also spiritual and mathematical, his putting together of the terms sound as daring as are his jewels. An example from the past - earrings made using Etruscan goldsmith techniques. What strikes you immediately, with that continuous thread of gold which forms waves that are high and narrow, sealed in a thin plate. An example from the present - the bowl, something new in the goldsmith field, but inspired by the "cup-shaped boulders" from prehistory. Here the spirit returns, because the bowl has always been a symbolic object, a mere container and also the carrier of offerings to the gods, instrument of charity for the beggar, cornerstone of the Christian religion. And mathematics also returns, because Sello embeds tiny stones, only a millimeter in dimension, 25 times, like the square palindrome of Sator, in formations of four, with a technique which simulate engraving light angles. The hundred bowls, and it doesn't sound casual, are surround-ed by companions that are just a bit bigger, in a perfect circle. "I have called them the Jewels of Charity, and they vibrate with a particular energy".