In You were born good at make die., DiFronzo explores acts of violence, nurture, and decay through patchwork compositions, natural dye paintings on silk panels, dead dough sculptures, and works on paper. This exhibition is a continued analysis of the impacts of paternal generational trauma, the methods accepted through patriarchy that men find to cope, and how the artist sees the weight of it all reflected in their own actions as well as its impact on women in their life. DiFronzo uses the surrounding landscape of Pittsburgh as experienced in person during their residency at Bunker Projects and as well as in the 1978 film, The Deerhunter, as a physical and ideological intermediary. In this body of work they use the role of the hunter to illustrate the dualities that occur in taking an animal’s life. There is the intense psychic release Robert De Niro’s character from The Deerhunter finds in stalking and gunning down an elk in one shot. Then there is the figure of the huntress Diana/Artemis, who not only hunts game with her bow and hounds but also serves as a protector in the form of a fertility deity. DiFronzo looks to the woods and the structure of the grotto as sites of pause to be sought out or constructed. Along with the hunter and hounds, the cast includes the vulture and coyote as custodian, caring for its young through the consumption of carrion. There is then the carrion itself: the deer seen both alive, ill, dead, and desiccated. A loving tribute to what is seen pasted on freeways. Its last visual memory is a pair of shining orbs, sun dogs hiding steel. It’s still eyes facing the sun or moon those headlights mimic.

 impacts of paternal generational trauma, the methods accepted through patriarchy that men find to cope, and how the artist sees the weight of it all reflected in their own actions as well as its impact on women in their life. DiFronzo uses the surrounding landscape of Pittsburgh as experienced in person during their residency at Bunker Projects and as well as in the 1978 film, The Deerhunter, as a physical and ideological intermediary. In this body of work they use the role of the hunter to illustrate the dualities that occur in taking an animal’s life. There is the intense psychic release Robert De Niro’s character from The Deerhunter finds in stalking and gunning down an elk in one shot. Then there is the figure of the huntress Diana/Artemis, who not only hunts game with her bow and hounds but also serves as a protector in the form of a fertility deity. DiFronzo looks to the woods and the structure of the grotto as sites of pause to be sought out or constructed. Along with the hunter and hounds, the cast includes the vulture and coyote as custodian, caring for its young through the consumption of carrion. There is then the carrion itself: the deer seen both alive, ill, dead, and desiccated. A loving tribute to what is seen pasted on freeways. Its last visual memory is a pair of shining orbs, sun dogs hiding steel. It’s still eyes facing the sun or moon those headlights mimic.

n You were born good at make die, DiFronzo explores acts of violence, nurture, and decay through patchwork compositions, natural dye paintings on silk panels, dead dough sculptures, and works on paper. This exhibition is a continued analysis of the

APRIL 2022

Exhibition

You were born good at make die