Grazia Gallo

Manufactured objects trashed —be it parts of a broken vacuum machine, foam protection for boxed products, or parts of a wire-fence—they enter a state of existential redundancy. Having had their function removed and with their position in the world as expendable objects, under tension and ceaseless constraint they hang on to The Ark, attempting to redefine and claim a new identity.

A formal study using elongated plastic straws, mirrors, and a plastic board. An investigation of objects that fit perfectly into another, and lead to the development of combining color and manufactured predefined forms.

Every Era is characterized by the inanimate objects it has produced. In museums, an entire civilization is portrayed in anthropological means by the careful recognition and categorization of tools, furniture and any other surviving materials received from the subject matter. NATURA MORTA2019 subjects typical inanimate objects that belong and characterize our era. Making use of the traditional composition strategies used in still life paintings, I reframe the way we look at the function of these objects; a link between the past and the present to serve the future.

Metaphorically, as a human full of vitality in front of another human that is fully lacking, two objects are positioned to reflect each other. The one of vitality is sufficient and self-composed, the one that is lacking is in an immutable state and incapable. Materials retrieved from functional objects of our ordinary environment—office light-tubes, scraps of manufactured metal objects, plastic wrap—are used to make a comparison of life and lacking life, and the difficulty or incapability of self-reflection.

Unfunctional Green is about decontextualizing the industrial, mass-produced, disposable products that permeate our society today. Removing them from their intended way of being used, from their function as tools or parts of a tool, is an attempt at allowing them to be admired purely for their form, color, and texture. In looking at these objects, in a manner of active personification, they come together to form a set of sculptures. The recurring color neon green is used to emphasize the origin of the objects production, their artificiality, their industrial provenance. As most things around us are in fact industrially produced—whether in use, no longer in use, repurposed, or mere trash—these things have reached a level of abundance that also grants them redundancy. Consisting of objects that share a similar formal language, and positioned so that they are is in dialog with one another and with the viewer as she/he moves about the installation, each sculpture is a tacit claim for their own identity, a justification for their existence.

Dutch painter Hieronimus Bosh (1453-1516), criticized religious moral superiority and often depicted surreal scenarios using various religious elements. Taking direct reference from his paintings, this work uses a similar color pallet and forms which create a three-dimensional background resembling a sacred religious space. Bread and tea, which have been important products of daily life and important to life-sustenance in many cultures, are applied with pins to the canvas. Ultimately forming a jesting complaint about Dutch routine and strong habitual behavior.