Gos Lab | Mass Strandings

Gos Lab is the creative space of Italian printmaker, artist, and surfer, Fabio Fontana. Fabio’s works are predominantly inspired by the natural and animal world, with the intention of raising awareness of environmental issues.

Behind all of his work, there is a common thread; his passion for surfing. Fabio describes; “Plunging into the water at the break of dawn is something magical. Rowing offshore, often lonely, looking at the land from a different point of view, lets me breathe. In those moments I am connected with myself. But it is also a way to see first-hand how horribly man have been treating our planet. I don’t have the arrogance to change people’s way of living, but, in my small way, I try to shift focus on some issues I consider important: the respect of nature, of the sea and of the creatures that live in. Nature does not belong to us, it is just a matter which has been lent us.”

His latest series of works does just that. Mass Strandings is a collection of screen prints through which Fabio hopes to raise awareness of damage currently being caused to marine animals by the drilling, air bombs, and sonar technologies that are used in the search of hydrocarbons, resulting in huge noise pollution to the seabed and mass strandings and beachings of whales and dolphins.

For Fabio, the creation of the illustrations represent the most meditative part of his work. He implements a technique which finds its roots in the Australian aboriginals’ ancestral dot art. Fabio has reinterpreted their art, providing his own work with a particularity and unicity. Each of the illustrations is composed of thousands of micro spheres that vary in size on the basis of the visual rhythm he wants to confer to the drawing. He states; “To my mind they aren’t dots, but drops of water, which together form an image. Here too, there is a strong conceptual component, we know for sure that water is a substance at the origin of creation, we ourselves are made of water for the 70/80% and so is our planet – the Earth. Isn’t it incredible?”

Fabio’s artworks are utilise a variety of ancient printing techniques, sometimes individually, sometimes together, combing screen print, cyanotype, linocut and woodblock. When using the woodblock technique, he utilises either recycled wood or pieces of old ships washed up by the sea and handcrafted.

So what’s in store next for Gos Lab? Among his current plans, Fabio hopes to build a van-lab that he can use as a studio and move to chase the waves. He concludes; “I like interacting with people interested not only in my job and I like to think of being able to draw the attention of the people looking at or buying my artworks on environmental issues. I need to think of having managed to make them reflect on Respect and Reconciliation with Nature. Our thoughts move energy.”

@goslab
www.goslab.com

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