Gioia Cattaneo
A necessity to make the seemingly unnecessary, necessary. My recent work has relied on sourcing and repurposing outdated materials, much like the Arte Povera movement, when artists rejected the hierarchy of traditional media. By assembling found and collected paraphernalia I hope to give a new purpose and perspective to these objects by attempting to emphasise their latent qualities. The act of pressing flowers has long been a core part of my work, as a way to capture and delay the ravages of time passing. Looking for alternative ways to display floral matter, the used glass screen protector serves as a portable vessel of preservation.
Gold Foil (the chocolate kind), 2020 responds to enamelling processes which use foil, discovered in a unit I studied in first semester. The materials used intend to emulate traditional processes by resorting to accessible house items, like pressing aluminium foil on embossed surfaces. The utilitarian state of studio materials such as tape will be transformed into a vase, as I aim to foreground and celebrate the importance of tape to my work and process. Overall, this body of work holds sentimental value, and I hope others may reminisce peacefully in its presence.
Tape Vase, 2020
Found plywood square, found piece pine wood, 5 tapes; 2 clear packing tape rolls, 3 masking tape rolls, pressed rose encased in poly copy stitched with white cotton thread, pressed rose petal, clear glue and poly copy on 2.0mm polystyrene sheet
250mm x 600mm x 120mm
Memory Box #1, 2020
Found plywood structure, found postcard, visual diary, balsa wood, shell, found red coin, poly copy print out, small paper print
376mm x 315mm
Gold foil (the chocolate kind), 2020
Gold foil, clear glue, white gesso, polystyrene sheet
50mm x 30mm
Blur the lines between old and new by focusing on what is present, 2020
Tempered glass screen protector, rose petal, bridge plywood
