Adrian Paci draws on his own experience and that of family and friends to address social and political issues. Using traditional storytelling techniques, he offers reflections on collective history, identity and community under conditions of exile and migration. Some of his works also deal with the artist’s role and status in society through at times caustic humour and poetry.
The Column is the marvellous, luminous, tightly told tale of an ambitious artistic project that blends the real and the fictional, the timeless and the transhistorical, East and West. Learning that it was possible to have a marble sculpture made on board a “factory boat” as it sailed from China to Europe, Paci set out to capture the fascinating images of a sea voyage on which five Chinese craftsmen diligently carve a block of marble, transforming the raw material into a classic Roman column.
