I am interested in the language of materials and the concepts that underlie the processes used to transform resources into objects of beauty. At present, my artworks are made with recovered materials as humble as cardboard packaging. This choice of medium arises from my concern about humanity’s growing preoccupation with excessive consumerism. The issue with disproportionate consumption is the resulting environmental destruction generated by the endless industrial production and by the unprecedented amounts of waste. Hence, the resources employed are integral to the narrative of my pieces, as packaging inevitably infers consumerism, storage, global transport, aesthetic appeal, obsolescence and, ultimately, a global economy relying on endless consumption to safeguard its own survival.

Materials are embedded in the history of societies. However, sometimes, materials can also be the determining factor in the course of society’s history. Such was the case for bronze - its discovery ushered humanity from the stone age into the age of metal, improving quality of life and, most importantly, laying the foundations for the industrial age. Considering that I view my artistic practice as a site of personal protest against a contemporary economy that privileges fast and disposable industrial production, translating my objects from cardboard to bronze significantly adds to their layers of discourse. The promise of permanency carried by the bronze eloquently highlights the story of disposability embedded in the cardboard; the humble paper pulp can no longer hide its own fragility when juxtaposed to the strength of the bronze; the painstaking process of transmuting an obsolescent resource into a collectible object becomes glaringly obvious as the bronze quietly declares its own innate preciousness without need for intervention. Such examples are just a few of the many oppositions engendered by these bronze artworks and their cardboard beginnings, contradictions that remind us of the notion that the world is inevitably made of polarities and survival can only be guaranteed when a balance is struck. These beautiful bronze pieces, then, compel us to ask the question – is our world in balance?

- Patrizia Biondi