Patrizia Biondi (NSW)

Biondi deploys the language of recovered materials to express her concerns about the unsustainability of the global economy. Exponential growth, endless consumption, environmental destruction, uneven distribution of resources, human alienation and a crisis of empathy, are all direct consequences of the present economic structure and point to a society in desperate, vital need for social change. Her artworks speak to our ability to recalibrate and reconstruct our perception, our beliefs our world, through the infinite human spirit of adaptation and renovation, calling for a society built on equanimity, humility and solidarity between all human and non-human life.

Materials are inevitably entrenched with the history of societies and cardboard packaging is no different. Packaging speaks to consumerism, storage, advertising, global transport, aesthetic appeal, obsolescence, fast profits and, ultimately, the instrumentalisation of humanity at the service of the economy.

The recovered detritus retains many of the characteristics that it was found in. Therefore, the marks, the rips, the packaging tape, the delivery labels and all the elements that embody the journey of the packages and the vocabulary of commerce are left visible or only partially covered by the paint, rendering the artworks anthropological relics.