3 minute read
Breathing Waves
FEATURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY PAOLA IDRONTINO
ARTIST STATEMENT
Stirred by a passion for storytelling and the beauty found within nature, I combine complex textile arrangements to create otherworldly costumes inspired by grotesque creatures that express an affection for tales and myths. My inspirations come from opulent Victorian and Elizabethan costumes, wigs, whimsical and bizarre textures found in nature.
My passion for textiles led me to the creation of marine inspired sculptures and costumes. My photography, is the final combining agent that allows all of what I do to come together in their different forms.
WHAT IS ‘BREATHING WAVES’ ABOUT?
My work has focused on creating awareness since 2016 from taking a closer look into what is happening to our world’s oceans, in particular, the corals.
My marine inspired anthropomorphic costumes, represent bleached corals. Their majestic presence reflects the complex and breathtaking beauty that lives underwater. Breathing Waves is an exhibition in which I invite the audience to experience the enchanting beauty hidden beneath the waves. A glimpse into the devastating effects of coral bleaching caused by climate change. By creating something wearable, I was challenging the idea that “we are what we wear” to begin to see ourselves as part of nature, to be able to empathise with it because we are one. When we see ourselves as part of nature, we understand that saving nature is really about saving ourselves.
The world is going through a devastating climate crisis. We need to protect what we have, we need to restore what we have lost, and we must act now in order to mitigate the effects of global warming and the catastrophic effects that it can bring to this planet, and all of its species, including us.
BY LAURA CORNEJO – ART CURATOR
In Breathing Waves, Paola Idrontino – aka “Papayapie” – presents her fascination with the sea; at the same time, she tries to understand the peculiar way in which humans relate to this extremely powerful entity of our planet, one that both literally breathes life and has also been described countless times by great literature, as a metaphor for life itself. British author, Philip Hoare, reminds us “The sea, like the imagination of the writer or the artist, drags all sorts of obsessions, stories and ambitions.”
Paola Idrontino’s photographs and textile sculptures express an affection for tales and myths, with references to a feminine world that becomes a protective deity of underwater creatures. Honouring the physical dimension of the oceans, the artist’s work represents beauty, exuberant and chromatic, assuming it is metaphysics that defines and connects us. In contrast, Idrontino’s majestic anthropomorphic creations magnify with their preciousness, the other side of the mask and what is hidden beneath the disguise: a condition of fragility and of climate urgency – such as the bleaching of corals – instigating the participation, the interpretation and the conscience of the spectator.
Art has everything to do with submerging oneself – the unknown territory of exploring those depths – and in front of Paola Idrontino’s work, we immerse ourselves in an extraordinary and hidden, yet perceivable universe that provokes us with each wave.
ABOUT PAOLA IDRONTINO
Born in Italy, Paola Idrontino is a multidisciplinary artist based in Barcelona. In 2004 she completed a first class BA (Hons), graphic design at Central St Martins College, London. In 2005 she launched a label called Papayapie, with the intention of exploring new ways of highlighting and dramatising the natural silhouette of the body using costumes and accessories. She is stirred by a passion for storytelling, textile and beauty within nature, otherworldly wearable costumes and creatures from the deep sea. With an underpinning of traditional techniques, she exploits the manipulative properties of fibres and combines them with unexpected and widely contrasting materials, both new and recycled.
WEBSITE: www.papayapie.com
INSTAGRAM: @paolaidrontinoart
FACEBOOK: @paolaidrontinoart
