Indigenous Australian craftsmanship marries recycled plastic. The result is real art: colorful chandeliers that deserved to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia
TikTok's viral trick to preserve avocado is dangerousIndigenous Australian craftsmanship marries recycled plastic. The result is real art: colorful chandeliers that deserved to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.
These splendid PET lamps are actually the result of a work commissioned by the Gallery itself, which brought the indigenous artists Yolngu and the founder of the PET Lamp project. Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, to create unique chandeliers made only using recycled plastic bottles and mats.
The woven PET fiber chandeliers today are an extraordinary installation visible to the public.
How was the initiative born?
Pet Lamp was actually born in 2011 thanks to the idea of the Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón who started the homonymous project by collaborating with communities around the world. The target? Transforming plastic waste into unique and functional works.
For the past five years Catalán de Ocón has worked with artisans in Colombia, Chile, Japan and Ethiopia to produce the “collaborative” lamps.
We had already shown you one of these projects, the one conducted in Ethiopia with the mothers of the twins. The collection, called Abyssinia, had been made together with some mothers of twins. The latter in Ethiopia are stigmatized because they are considered "not blessed by God".
PET Lamp in Australia
Now in its fifth year, the PET Lamp Project has traveled the world illuminating communities with beautiful sustainable crafts. For the sixth installation, Alvaro Catalán de Ocón landed in Australia where he collaborated with seven indigenous weavers in Arnhem Land, one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. The large lamps consist of leaves e roots of a tropical plant of the genus Pandanus, natural dyes, PET plastic bottles, reused electrical cables and low voltage LEDs.
“Aboriginal art originally had ceremonial purposes and a sacred aura, with a great spiritual charge. Today, traditional forms and techniques, such as the bark of paintings and the engravings on rocks, are evolving and coexist with new materials to enhance the artists' repertoire " it is read on the official website of the project.
Why Australia? For nearly 65.000 years, Australia's Aboriginal people lived in complete isolation and retained a unique culture and ecosystem. When Europeans arrived at the end of the XNUMXth century, the Aboriginal community was made up of a number of tribes who shared a worldview in which the physical (earth), the human and the sacred were totally integrated.
“These fundamental differences have led to a gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. In the search for this richness, and to allow it to be appreciated by many others, we have sought communities in which traditions and worldview are preserved in their purest form ”.
READ also:
- The wonderful PET chandeliers handmade by African women (PHOTO)
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- Light bulbs from plastic bottles: here is the Liter of Light project (video)
The project was carried out over the course of six weeks in 2016. Some lampshades were joined in a single woven piece. These beautiful recycled lights will be on display at the National Gallery of Victoria until April 15, 2018.
Francesca Mancuso
