Magazine 2003
Editorial – ARS • 108
Gualti special sculpture-creations enhance footwear, bags and clothes
Shoe decorations and jewels to wear
The originality of the various types of clasps, jewels and ethnic decorations can enhance clothes, shoes, bags, scarves and stoles but also hairstyles or a special ensemble for the evening or a wedding
■«Is it the jewel that enhances the body or the body that allows itself to be totally caught and decorated by these decorations?». This is the question put by Annamaria Orsini Cammarata, art historian, in “Ornamenta”, a text dedicated to the creations of Gualtiero Salbego, professionally known as ‘Gualti’, that already indicates the significance of these creations and acts as a good starting point in understanding the young Venetian creator of such special sculptures and gems that can enhance or transform the look of those who wear them. Originally from the Padova province, 30-year old Gualti is self-taught, an “experimenter and inventor” of body decoration, whose creativity is the driving power of his existence, resulting in the showing of his creations in various art exhibitions in cities from Vicenza to Venice, where he has a workshop in Rio Terà, at Dorsoduro. From childhood he was always interested in anything that is born or found below the surface, roots and fossils in particular, later he worked on the profiles of these objects which fascinated him so much, so as to create jewels and accessories in the shape of flowers, leaves, cascades of feathers, often with a heart or, even better an eye, in the centre, an “orb of water” according to Annamaria Orsini, that seems to study the present. In fact, the materials Gualti works with such as resins, glass, small crystals, contribute to the magic of his creations with their transparency, luminousity, impalpable and watery consistency, as does the choice of colours from white to all the various shades of blue, green and coral. Thanks to these characteristics his wide variety of clasps, jewels, amulets and ethnic decorations characterize or even give new identity to dresses, court shoes, bags, scarves and stoles or enhance a hairstyle, a special ensemble for evenings or weddings, filling them with light and colour, making them unique and unmistakable.
