SCENE 360
Floria Sigismondi was born in 1965 in Pescara, Italy. Both her parents were opera singers; and she was named after a character from the Tosca Opera. Costumes and theatrical settings have been apart of her childhood. When she was two years old, the family emigrated to Canada, settling in the industrial city of Hamilton, Ontario. In 1987 she moved to Toronto to study painting and illustration at the Ontario College of Art (now known as the Ontario College of Art and Design). Graduating with a photography major, she began what quickly became a successful career as a fashion photographer and within a year had expanded into directing music videos.

The multi-disciplinary work of Floria Sigismondi encompasses film, video, photography and sculpture. Incorporating early film and painterly aesthetics Floria creates a hyper-surrealism based on the figure, using images derived from hallucinatory dream-states. Stills from her videos mix seamlessly with her photography series, and her photographic images translate naturally into sculptural and mixed-media forms. Poetic and often macabre, Floria's images exist in a theater settling that is both narrative and starkly visual, with influences ranging from Hans Belmer, Francis Bacon and David Lynch to Greek Mythology. Floria explores the effects of science on our contemporary experience of the body;
"I'm interested by how the idea of beauty would change if you had anything at your disposal, and it was possible. I'm also interested in deconstructing the body. And after you've taken it apart, the next step is to create a new one," states Floria. She describes an undefined possibility for the future of the human form; with our current advances in bio-technology, it is a possibility that is frightening, complex, mysterious and compelling. Floria brings to life new creatures, which are meant to prompt the viewers imagination.
Her most current projects are photography and sculpture installation exhibitions (New York and Toronto), book publications of/including her photographs (New York, Germany, and Italy) and to direct her first film. She has had extensive media coverage both nationally and internationally.

She had worked with highly acclaimed international music artists such as David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Tricky, Leonard Cohen, Bjork, Amon Tobin, among others. Her photographs have been included in group exhibitions with Cindy Sherman, Rebecca Horn, Vanessa Beecroft, Tony Oursler, Donald Lipski, Roberto Clemente, and Joel-Peter Witkin.



The official Floria Sigismondi web site

An exclusive interview with Floria Sigismondi



+ based on the official biography of Floria Sigismondi,
review by Adriana de Barros | credits

Heart
Marilyn
AND-ie
Six inches Diptych
Kanga