You Are Powerful
This piece was created during the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Specs
- Value: €7.500
- Material: Recycled Cardboard (recovered from the street)
- Dimension: 160cm x 100xm x 80cm
- Months: 3
- Hours: 140
- Title: You Are Powerful
- Description: Young Woman Throwing Spoon in Protest
- Series: Second Chances (#3)
About the Piece
This was the fourth piece created by Chad in his studio in Bologna following the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 and during the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. This piece was presented at the Lucca Biennale 2022. Like all the material for this project, every cardboard box (this piece is mostly Amazon) recovered from the streets of Bologna has a story and a previous life — abandoned and given a second chance (Learn more about the philosophy of the material for this series). This piece pictures a young woman in a classic pose of protest that would normally be associated with launching a Molotov Cocktail, but in this case she is throwing a spoon.
This was the second full body sculpture Chad attempted, and it pushed him to improve his processes for creating a structure that was strong and balanced enough to stay upright independently. Lessons from this sculpture were used to create the much larger sculptures later. A human body can remain balanced on two feet mostly because it is able to adjust the body's center of gravity dynamically to regain balance constantly, but a static sculpture can remain in position only if it has perfect proportions.
Chad continued his research into how to use the material by pushing himself to leave large parts of the sculpture "unfinished", exposing the material and the structure to the viewer to make the material an important part of the meaning behind the piece. He continued exploring razor cutting to define the look of the hands and face, which allowed him to create more detailed features to focus the viewer's attention on certain parts of the statue. Chad's process and philosophy evolved in this project as he continued to explore elements of motion and incompleteness, engaging the viewer to fill in the details.
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