Gilles Cenazandotti — Tide Art — Plastic Beach

Exhibition

Sculpture

Gilles Cenazandotti
Tide Art — Plastic Beach

Past: October 19, 2012 → February 27, 2013

What’s going to happen when the tide overflows with our rejected products—abandoned on Earth and collected by the Sea— when the pollution touches so many species that life itself will become diminished ?

I’ve already imagined this universe in my sculptures, cities in movement necessary to the survival of man. This science fiction is near when we see that the animals have already changed territory. We may wonder what they will become, like many species that have already disappeared, if they were to find more resources.

Some have already applied their genius to cloning, robotizing and reinventing the fauna and flora. I thusly imagine the animals issued from cloning, results of our consumerist society of surplus and the derived products. My work is to bring awareness to this shift, to show this diversity that struggles with the natural element.

Impressed by everything that the Sea, in turn, rejects and transforms, on the beaches I harvest the products derived from petroleum and its industry. The choice of animals that are part of the endangered species completes this process. In covering these animals with a new skin harvested from the banks of the Sea, I hope to draw attention to this possible metamorphosis—to create a trompe l’oeil of a modified reality.

The Polar Bear sees his living space diminish. He is lost on his drifting iceberg, attached to nothing. Stranded on an unknown shore, he is a surprise in this decor that is not his. Standing on his paws, he discovers this new world. When we approach him, we realize he does not move, frozen in his form by the rubbish that we have covered him with. By photographing him in this environment, where he should not be in the first place, the paradox becomes evident.

Mainly covered in plastic, this shell makes him indestructible. Having resisted storms, this material, invented to last, makes him immortal. Like an image of a Manga Samurai, he assumes this impressive armor as a sign of the struggle that he leads to protect his own.

  • Gilles Cenazandotti — Tide Art Opening Thursday, October 18, 2012 6 PM → 11 PM
Misc venues for this event

The artist

  • Gilles Cenazandotti