Barello has a system to prep the medical imaging film for art making. When she retrieves the purged files from local hospitals, she divides the films according to hue. MRIs are reasonably consistent in color, while X-rays range from black to blue. Additionally, X-ray film can be dyed but MRI film is resistant to extra pigment.
Julia's pieces have varying dimensions and meanings. In her floral works, the forms become more opaque because they are stacked shapes held together with a pin. Once the film is dyed, the artist slices them either by hand with a surgical scalpel (ironic) or, more recently, with an industrial laser cutter. In Genome III (above), Barello is suggesting that the optical effect of shadows upon shadows, combined with X-rayed information layered on top of each other, references memories' complexities and opacity.
In a piece such as Swoop, a special installation at the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas, El Paso, Barello encourages the 21st century viewer to reflect on present-day tendencies to over-examine our physical bodies. In various venues such as night clubs, health clubs and even medical facilities, we are observed, investigated and probed. This triggers classic associations with medical experiences because the specimens used are of a limited palette of black and grey, highlighting the information from the original MRI film.
What is most admirable about Julia Barello's work is that she connects us to the physical and personal experience as well as transports us away from it.
Julia Barello has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad and is currently a professor of art at New Mexico State Univeristy in Las Cruces, NM. She was recently awarded Best in Show at the 2008 Southwest Biennial at the Albuquerque Art Museum.
