The Loop of Love

The title “The Loop of Love”, like in many other works from Francesco Tortorella‘s Weird Love Series, is at once a music reference – in this case the iconic 1967 song by Dusty Springfield – and a telling insight. 

The loop format, now ubiquitous thanks to the .gif phenomenon, is here a deliberate expressive choice. More even than the jarring colors and the sometimes distorted physicality, it conveys the repetitive joy and agony of of a romantic relationship, continuously re-exposing the maddening, infinite cycle of love. 

In the very first image, a nipple, here in the symbolic function of a “bud”- the vulnerable beginning- is stretched into dissolution by a probing hand. The disconcerting image encapsulates the anxiety of self loss, of self dissolution, that rises with the growth of the relationship. The violent image of the hand pulling the head off screen re-enforces the ambiguous feeling of release and fear within the loss of self-control. 

The woman is left eyeless, a stand-in for the spectator, her expression determined by our innermost fears and desires. The conflict almost ruptures the cycle, with the quickly receding woman’s hand almost disappearing from view, before it is pulled back by her male counterpart, locking them both into eternity. 

With great effectiveness, this short (and eternal) piece captures the essentially human struggle of facing the repetitiveness of ones own romantic experiences; the frustration and simultaneous exhilaration of a cycle always beginning anew.

Reviewed by Sofia Chirico