OFLUXO

In a suite of oil and flashe paintings, Alessi depicts the archetype of the trickster and his various uncanny surrogates. I f the project of all rational thought i s to align i nternal subjective reality with the external objective, then the trickster’s main tactic i s to confuse with unsettling ambiguity. Dolls, prosthetics, puppets, and masks make i t uncertain whether Alessi’s subjects are l iving or i nanimate, setting the trickster’s mischief i n motion. Even the ringleader of chaos himself is hiding under a closely cropped iconic witch mask, only to be revealed dancing, holding mysterious white balls in a separate painting.

The trickster’s sleight of hand continues as he creates a shadow puppet of a rabbit,  common trickster animal i n folklore, with a stiff middle finger i n the air to render the rabbit’s i nnocent ears. The trickster has private motives, holding the potential to harm if necessary, but with no guarantee. Like a game of Russian roulette, his evil i s heightened by i ts proximity to play. I n other canvases, the trickster sends witches, magic, and demons, to do his bidding. Symbols and colors repeat throughout the implying a series of coincidences that suddenly bear a fateful meaning. What i s fleshy and real and what i s cold and prosthetic i s never quite clear. The only two seemingly human figures i n the group  distorted by question their relationship to the tricker’s reality.

Conspiracy theories frequently surface as comprehension tools during times of uncertainty and after traumatic events. When power i s masked and realities are pliable, being tricked can be a matter of l ife or death. I f matching i nternal and external realities i s a cognitive tool of survival, we gain a provisional relief from “unknown-unknowns” when chance and accidents are relinquished to the “known-unknowns” of Murphy’s Law, fate, magic, or evil. However, if there i s a man behind the curtain using subliminal cues to exploit psychology, the true terror lies in the uncertainty you’re not already an unwitting victim of trickery.