Nel corso della loro ricerca il duo di artisti ha voluto creare un dialogo serrato con una pluralità di fonti visive e nelle loro precedenti opere compaiono una serie di riverberi della pittura classica, del cinema e dei protagonisti dell’arte del nostro tempo. Nell’ultimo ciclo, pur permanendo questi riferimenti che sono profondamente introiettati dagli artisti, appare chiaro come il loro sguardo si stia interrogando sulla dimensione della prossimità. Nella costruzione formale delle opere appaiono elementi minimi, mutuati dalla quotidianità che, attraverso l’atto creativo, viene elevata a dimensione estetica grazie al sentimento dello stupore. Il loro articolato processo creativo, generalmente dominato dal rigore e dalla perizia formale, ha visto insinuarsi il potenziale generativo della casualità che può modificare i lavori in corso d’opera e condurli in direzioni inaspettate. La prima fase creativa ha visto gli autori realizzare una fotografia di still life che in un secondo momento viene proiettata su degli elementi tridimensionali, fatti di tubi argentati, per realizzare un secondo scatto; durante la postproduzione le due fotografie sono poi sormontate per giungere a una stratificazione visiva feconda di riflessioni sullo statuto stesso dell’immagine. Quest’ultima, date le sue qualità formali, può indurre a credere in una sua natura meramente digitale e artefatta, ma al contrario rimane strettamente connessa alla tangibilità fisica degli oggetti impiegati durante la realizzazione. In tal senso il processo creativo ha un valore primario, e nel suo svolgersi si aprono nuovi interrogativi sulle possibilità di espansione del concetto di fotografia, stimolate anche da un’attitudine performativa degli autori. 

Nelle immagini in cui è presente la figura umana si assiste a una indagine introspettiva che oltrepassa la natura apparentemente patinata delle fotografie che si avvicinano a un’idea di ritratto psicologico. Se ai suoi albori la fotografia era vista come uno specchio del mondo, a voler segnare una oggettività del mezzo, in questo caso diviene lo strumento per un colloquio interiore tra Spectrum e Operator. Da un lato è fissato il portato emotivo delle persone raffigurate, ma sui loro volti si riverberano anche una serie di istanze umane connesse al sentire presente di Antonio Managò (Busto Arsizio, 1978) e Simone Zecubi (Gallarate, 1979) del duo J&PEG. Queste opere recenti, pur inscenando soggetti variegati, sono tutte connaturate da un senso di attesa e sospensione quasi fossimo dinanzi a un presente capace di prefigurare nuovi accadimenti già insiti a livello formale nelle composizioni fotografiche.

THE PROCESS THAT LEADS TO THE IMAGE

Over the centuries, the innovations of great authors have influenced other artists and circulated throughout the European continent through the collection of works or their reduction to print. All of this was dominated by the slow temporality of a pre-digital era, where each image was the result of stylistic, social, and cultural evolution. Today's iconosphere, as predicted by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s, which influences our perception of the world and our behaviors, is instead based on instantaneous processes, and every aesthetic variation is conditioned, if not predetermined, on a global scale by what has been defined as an "aesthetics of access". The rituals of everyday life are marked by visual schedules - in which we participate as prosumers - where a large part of the identity differences are nullified to conform to a visual grammar conditioned by the digital relational system within which we have been operating for over a decade. The world of social networks seemingly places humans at the center, but it establishes a game of masks, appearances, and adherence to dominant narrative structures. These dynamics are the precursors of the authorial reflection conducted in the recent works of the J&PEG collective.

The figures portrayed in the series Fake life (2019 - ongoing) are characterized by a sort of veil that obscures their faces, generating a contradictory sensation that reminds us of our condition as people who communicate through a digital filter capable of creating a fracture between the principle of reality and the semantic construction we offer of ourselves. The draperies used by the duo to conceal both objects and the faces of the people portrayed serve to provoke short circuits in the representative and perceptive linearity that usually dominates the vernacular communication of our time, where the majority of produced images adhere to precise canons. Our gaze is generally confronted with what the philosopher Byung-Chul Han has defined as smooth communication, which is "free from any negativity of the other and the foreign, and reaches maximum speed where equals react to equals," resulting in substantial visual uniformity to generate a linear, superficial message devoid of any singular content or formal characteristics. On the contrary, in the works of J&PEG, the depicted objects, such as vases, despite having a specific nature and function, seem to acquire an aura of mystery that prevents perfect comprehension, thus leaving the door open to multiple meanings and a metaphysics of gaze.

Throughout their research, the duo of artists wanted to create a close dialogue with a plurality of visual sources, and their previous works include a series of echoes from classical painting, cinema, and the protagonists of contemporary art. In the latest cycle, while these deeply internalized references remain, it becomes clear that their gaze is questioning the dimension of proximity. In the formal construction of the works, minimal elements borrowed from everyday life appear, which, through the act of creation, are elevated to an aesthetic dimension thanks to a sense of wonder. Their intricate creative process, generally dominated by rigor and formal expertise, has seen the potential for generative randomness to creep in, modifying the works in progress and leading them in unexpected directions. The initial creative phase involved the authors capturing a still life photograph, which is later projected onto three-dimensional elements made of silver tubes to create a second shot. During post-production, the two photographs are then superimposed to achieve a visual layering rich in reflections on the very nature of the image. Given its formal qualities, the latter may induce the belief in its purely digital and artificial nature, but on the contrary, it remains closely connected to the physical tangibility of the objects used during the creation process. In this sense, the creative process has primary value, and as it unfolds, new questions arise about the possibilities of expanding the concept of photography, stimulated by the authors' performative attitude.

In the images featuring the human figure, we witness an introspective investigation that goes beyond the seemingly polished nature of the photographs, approaching an idea of psychological portraiture. If photography was initially seen as a mirror of the world, aiming to establish the medium's objectivity, in this case, it becomes a tool for an inner dialogue between Spectrum and Operator. On one hand, the emotional content of the depicted individuals is captured, but their faces also reflect a series of human instances connected to the present feelings of Antonio Managò (Busto Arsizio, 1978) and Simone Zecubi (Gallarate, 1979) of the J&PEG duo. Despite staging varied subjects, these recent works are all imbued with a sense of anticipation and suspension, as if we were facing a present capable of prefiguring new events already inherent in the formal compositions of the photographs.