Specs

• Value: €18.000
• Material: Recycled Cardboard (recovered from the streets of Bologna)
• Dimension: 340cm x 180cm x 100cm
• Months: 9
• Hours: 250
• Title: You Are Loved
• Description: A large cardboard statue of a nude woman standing upright and removing her shirt above her head.
• Series: Second Chances (6 of 10)

About the Piece

This was the sixth piece created by Chad in his studio at Alchemilla started in the summer of 2021 and finished in the spring of 2022. This piece was presented at the Lucca Biennale 2022. Like all the material for this project, every cardboard box recovered from the streets of Bologna has a story and a previous life — abandoned and given a second chance,  This piece was also a collaborative process that involved the public, who were asked to write secrets and desires on pieces of cardboard that were then used to construct the statue. Some of these secrets are still partially visible in various parts of the statue if you look hard enough. Like other pieces in this series it represents the creative process of reusing the material of the past to create a new life. (Learn more about the philosophy of the material for this series.)

This was the third full body sculpture Chad attempted, and the first at such a large scale. Like all the other pieces, there is no internal structure other than many layers of cardboard that create the structure that supports the statue (which remain visible in certain parts of the legs). The lessons learned from the previous life sized sculptures proved sufficient at this larger scale as well. The legs are almost completely solid to give strength, weight and stability, while the body is empty.

Chad continued to use razor cutting as a way to carefully shape and draw attention to the hands and face. He also continued to incorporate elements of motion to draw the viewer from the static anchored legs up into the scene. The material remains an important part of all these pieces, so it's important that many parts remain "unfinished" to give the viewer the moment of surprise when they realize what the sculpture is made of and let them guess the meaning behind it.