In going through photographs with my mother, I saw she had downloaded some striking images of hands painted to look like animals. These are the work of an Italian artist, Mario Marriotti (1936-1997), with photography by Roberto Marchiori.Mario Mariotti was an experimental and conceptual artist who lived and worked in Florence. He began to experiment with painting his own hands in the late 1960's. Animani, which was published in 1980, shows the colorful representations of animals Marriotti created with his hand art. Subsequent books include Umani, Rimani, Humands, Hanimations, Hand Games, and Hands Off.
Photographs of Mariotti's work also were on display at an exhibition, Animani, from November 29, 2009 through April 11, 2010 at the Instituto degli Innocenti in Florence. This exhibition was curated by Stefano Filipponi, Francesca Mariotti, Gianni Pozzi and Andrea Rauch, and included workshops showing children how to re-create Mariotti's hand characters
In learning about Mariotti, I discovered a collaborative art project he organized in which the citizens of Florence were invited to submit images which were projected onto the exterior of the Santo Spirito during a performing arts festival. You can see some of the striking results in Santo Spirito Projections at the website Fictional Cities.
For your enjoyment, I've provided a slideshow of photographs by Roberto Marchiori of Marriotti's body art.
