"FOLD ME AND SAIL AWAY WITH ME"
Travelling around the world I have come
to realise that we are living in a world that overflows with waste.
This was the starting point that led me to investigate the relationship between
discarded materials, such as
plastic bags, and the environment.
In the past three years I have been looking
at how rubbish and man made objects are very much transforming and creating
new landscapes and becoming more and more integrated into nature.
This process, which I name “the evolution of landscape”, and that
is generated by our modern lifestyle, (consumption), I find very interesting
to observe, because it makes it, from an artistic point of view, a very exciting
material to work with and exploit.
After working for years
with all sorts of discarded materials, waste and rubbish, I decided that for
the time being I would focus on working just with plastic bags.
I think that plastic bags epitomize the perfect and quintessential discarded
object.
To me the plastic bag is the symbolic embryo that contains our lifestyle and
is the vessel that carries it out in its journey.
I find plastic bags interesting because of their remarkable contradictory
qualities. Plastic bags are in fact both worthless and useful, disposable
and recyclable, flimsy and strong, ephemeral and eternal, but above all they
are universal.
By putting the plastic bag in an artistic context I would like to elevate it to another dimension that takes it away from the idea of the banal and obvious and for an instant transforms it into a poetic object. In other words it becomes an inspiring muse. A mass-produced muse with forms, lines and colour, that can’t help but interact with the surrounding environment.
Like in my performances the plastic bags are a human and therefore natural appendix of man. Because one could argue that whatever is man made is natural and that ultimately nature is an unstable and unreliable human construction ruled by social and cultural needs.
I have chosen to materialise
my ideas trough the form of installation because in this way I find that I
can better express the concept of environment, movement, space, time and duration.
I like my installation to be large and give a sense of multitude and mass
as in mass-production, to be invasive by taking over space to the point of
suffocation, and to be in constant evolution and therefore changeable.
I want my work to become a virtual lyrical extension of modern life that substitutes
the old idealized concept of nature with a romanticised modern one.
Despite the fact that my
works wants to underline the relationship, or the conflict, between culture
and nature, and how they both influence and reflect each other, I also want
to build an awareness and make a comment on the way we are living and how
it effects the environment.
Nevertheless it is a non-judgemental comment since I haven’t really
resolved for myself, and never will, its contradictory nature of beauty and
danger.
In this particular piece
I am trying to visually materialize the 'vorticism' of our frenzied modern
life style in a sort of futuristic manner. I want to lure the viewer into
a deceptive environment that looks very uplifting, fun and beautiful but is
in fact quite dangerous.
I find that we are like colourful urban ants, constantly on the move, rushing
everywhere never stopping, consuming, shopping, buying or disposing.
The carrier bags, which
I have collected over the years and originate from all over the world (globalization),
are neatly folded into a gadget-like object and transformed into something
more valuable and precious, something which one would like to keep rather
than dispose of.
These curious objects become my painting medium with which I draw a pattern.
The process of 'painting" is a very expressive and loose one since the
concept of movement is very important for the piece.
The patterns I have created
are reminiscent of roots, sea and water currents but also of city plans.
The circles and spirals have a spiritual and natural symbolic connection and
want to relate to a more 'plastic' version of Land Art.
This piece wants to raise
an awareness about recycling and is a warning as much as it is an opportunity
for escapism, but above all it aims to express the contradictory nature of
life, so in the future why don't you fold me and sail away with me!
