Impressed by everything that the Sea, in turn, rejects and transforms, on the beaches, Gilles Cenazandotti harvests 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, it is the artist’s intention to draw attention to this possible metamorphosis – in Cenazandotti’s words, to create a trompe l’oeil of a modified reality.
The perspective of cloning and automation – two topics the artist appeals to in more of his works – ultimately leads to the reinvention of the wildlife and makes the artist imagine this derivative animal kingdom as the aftermath of excessive consumption. The diversity of forms and the jarring colours create a bestiary of robotic waste animals fighting the natural elements. But the sculptures reveal not only the dynamics of survival; they also show how animals may have changed territory and might be looking to find more resources to enhance their own species. As the species see their living space diminish, attached to nothing natural and stranded in unknown, unrecognizable places, they seem to embrace mutation.
Standing on his paws, The Polar Bear [image 11] discovers the brave new world, but he is frozen in his own animal form. By photographing the sculptures in the natural environment, Cenazandotti makes the paradox evident: covered in plastic, these animal sculptures seem indestructible shells in their armor of waste, signaling the struggle the species lead to protect their own. The plastic beach thus opens as a place for reflection on the future of our planet and the evolution of life, the society of overconsumption, the challenge of nature and resources, and the destruction of species.
Text and title by Sabin Bors / March 12, 2014. All rights reserved.