Plastic Contamporary Mosaic by Lady Be
At a time when there are so many coloured waste materials, especially plastic, I invented the Contemporary Mosaic.
Right from my very first project, I conceived the artwork as a real “diary of memories”, intended not only as personal memories but also as a collective memory. The aim was to create a sort of museum of a historical era using these objects of little value that are found every day in everyone’s hands, and for this reason very emblematic.
That is why I have always tried to leave them as unaltered as possible, by leaving them in their original colour and by keeping their shape as intact as possible, to evoke memories in every viewer. The wrapping of a make-up, an office biro, or even objects from one’s childhood, such as the “little surprises” found in a chocolate egg or a plastic doll theferome become “iconic objects”. A process that absolutely extends from the subject to the plastic objects that make it up.
I quote the critic Francesco Saverio Russo on the subject of Contemporary Mosaic: “Lady Be recycle. It is a very different kind of recycling from the Masters of Pop Art, since the recycling is done with popular objects linked to personal memories. They are objects that everyone knows well. Therefore, the cold and impersonal is transformed in ‘Personal Pop Art’ into the personal and engaging. The observer is encouraged to touch the work of art to try to capture its secrets, its most intimate essence. An art that is seen and seen again because it is something known but at the same time still to be discovered”.
Finally, works are created with the explicit intention of reflecting an entire era: the era of plastic. By freezing it and eternalising it in the work of art I aim to send a message of sustainability for the future.
Puliamo il mondo (2020)
Objects and resin on panel.
30 x 50 cm
It is a subject of my own invention, that I created live on TV in Bergamo using recycled plastic objects collected also by Legambiente volunteers. Rai 3 broadcast the creation of the work on Sunday 27 September 2020.
I created this work to celebrate the strength of the people of Bergamo, who were the first to face the Covid emergency in 2020. It depicts a human face with the planet as its head and where the mouth is swallowing a sea of plastic. It wants to highlight how much the problem of pollution is global and underline that polluting the world means harming ourselves, thinking as a possible consequence also of global problems such as the spread of pandemics.
Corona Jesus (2020)
Objects and resin on panel.
50 x 86 cm
With this work I represent the suffering face of Christ, who instead of the crown of thorns bears the representation of the Coronavirus (similar to that seen under an electron microscope). Crown Jesus represents the sacrifice of God. The Coronavirus has become a symbol of man’s atonement. In fact, each of us in the emergency, has made a sacrifice: doctors and nurses on the front line as soldiers. Elderly people, adults and children have been forced to stay indoors to avoid contracting and transmitting the virus. People who were sick but could not find a place in hospitals that were already overflowing. Men who have lost their jobs. Workers at home with no income. Each one of us has atoned with sacrifice for the evil of humanity. Humanity that for years has ruined the planet, with pollutants in the air and tons of plastic in the oceans. The same plastic that I have been collecting for years and dividing by colour to create my works.