Francesca Trusso Art Gallery

The term “hourglass” derives from the Greek *klepsýdra*, literally meaning “water thief,” since in ancient times this instrument was commonly used in its water-clock version. This fascinating time-measuring device symbolizes the distinctly human attempt to count, to savor, even the most elusive and immeasurable thing in the world: time.

For centuries, we have counted hours, days, years, but who can truly say what a single minute is worth? And, more importantly, how incredibly subjective is each person’s perception of the same handful of seconds? Days that fly by like moments, hours that sometimes seem endless…it’s all a matter of time.

In her hyperrealistic portrayals, Francesca Trusso manages to give form to the ineffable, representing time through its uninterrupted flow: just as sand slips quickly through the hourglass, a juicy lemon dissolves, melting away—a tangible sign of an inexorable yet necessary transformation that encompasses every living organism. Everything flows, everything transforms, everything changes; but it does not vanish, it does not die, because once the process ends, one only needs to turn the hourglass over and start counting again. What is empty fills up, and what is full empties out, in a harmonious and unceasing alternation that governs the universe, human life, relationships, and the emotions of existence.

And so, in an eternal pursuit, opposites clash to sustain an ancient balance that dominates all things; like a scale that measures worth, adding where there is none and taking from where there is excess. In this way, through the quest for photographic detail, Francesca Trusso succeeds in giving substance to time, form to the ineffable, and measure to the innumerable, capturing the one thing that humans attempt in vain to seize in a snapshot: time.

Curated by Valeria Rufini Ferranti