Piero Gilardi

 Piero Gilardi was an influential figure in the Arte Povera movement, or 'poor art' as it is more commonly known as, throughout the 1960's, a movement that still influences artists today.  From the outset, he was concerned with creating social relations with his art, using interactive sculptures and his creative work with social and political movements.


Nature Carpets
These beautiful carpets are made of Bayer brand polyurethane foam, and soaked in synthetic pigment dissolved in epoxy resin. They are then calved, into natural objects, however they are manipulated to look very theatrical, and slightly over-the-top on their appearance. When being created, Gilardi explained that their softness suggested comfort, all he did was was add a latent longing for a certain idea of nature. The effect is that of an artificial nature whereby the wonders and mysteries of real nature stimulate the brain but manifest themselves elementally under one's foot. 

I like the effect that this carpet holds, it looks very theatrical with the corns being made almost 3 times as big as to a real corn. each one is shaped with exaggeration  the nobbled bits are cut deeper to show what the object is, perhaps from a distance or if it was to placed on the set of a stage, so it can be clearly seen.



















To choose a carpets subject matter, Gilardi looks into the collective subconscious and into his childhood visions and when it comes to the modelling process, by carving, he uses technology which he says is very varied and inventive  in order to avoid the mechanism of representation at all times in favour of visual stimuli. 
Gilardi came up with the idea of creating these carpets one afternoon when he was chatting with a friend about the landscape that will surround the man in the future. He thought this landscape would be different to the image that we are presented with today in science-fiction; somewhat excited, he imagined  a naturalistic environment that was artificially made from synthetic materials for reasons of hygiene and comfort. From that moment on, he was curious to try and experiment with different materials and having identified a soft, but non-deformable material, he built four square metres of rocky torrent bed, basing on a survey he made in a real torrent. He achieved an extraordinary realistic result that he was continuously surprised by after walking for a long time over the material.

John Newling

John Newling's works explore the natural world and the social and economic systems of society, such as money or religion. He belongs to a generation of artists whose work evolved from Arte Povera and Land Art, movements occurring in the 1960s. This is Newling’s first major survey exhibition that takes place at Nottingham Contemporary, presenting a selection of his work from the 1970s to the present day. The reason Newling  creates his works is because he believes it inspires a positive social change and playing with ideas of current issues.

These cabbage leaves are meant to represent a pair of lungs, ironic really as plants and leaves provide living beings with oxygen, allowing them to breathe. I think it's somewhat of a metaphor, without the build up of cabbage leaves to make up the image of the lungs, there would be nothing to show, just an empty canvas. Just like if there was no plants and trees, no oxygen can be created and used.

The artworks are inspired by the natural world and its ecological systems. Newling has previously produced sculptural artworks and he has worked with two plant species with extraordinary properties. Newling grew and harvested over eighty Walking Stick Cabbages (Brassica oleracea). These can be seen to change physically over time in the exhibition as they dry and harden. Newling became interested in their use value, the trunks have traditionally been used as walking sticks.
    In my opinion I am not too keen on his natural art works, I think it's the simplicity what catches the target audience, it's a very bold piece of work and you can see it go through stages, hardening up and discolouring all the time, however I do like the idea of the piece that represents a pair of lungs, it's very metorphorical with the message behind it. Apart from that, for me it lacks originality and its simplistic form is something I unfortunately cannot connect with.