Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so goes the
saying. And, indeed, very often what looks trivial or even unattractive to some
may contain in itself the very seeds of Beauty. It takes the sensitive eye of
an artist to be able to create Art
from materials as common and uninteresting as industrial nails, toothpicks,
corks, eggshells, coffee beans or even paint brushes.
And that is exactly what Saimir
Strati, an Albanian artist, does. He is regarded as one of the most famous and
distinguished modern mosaic artists, having created stunning mosaics out of
those humble materials, seven of which have won him Guinness World Records for
their size and skill.
His gigantic portrait of
Leonardo Da Vinci (2006) became a milestone in Strati’s career. Recreating the
talented Renaissance genius’s self portrait, he used about 400 kilos of
industrial nails – more than 500,000 nails – on a surface of over 2x4 meters,
each of them organised according to different depths carefully planned under a
technique identical to that of digital photography, in which each nail
represents a pixel. The result is, literally, a dazzling resemblance of Da
Vinci’s self portrait, which strongly impresses viewers and obliterates the
notion that it has been made from common industrial nails.
In fact, Strati’s works gain
unique texture and body precisely owing to the kind of materials used. During
the 2nd International Festival “From Waste to Art”, held in Baku,
Azerbaijan, (16-20 June, 2013), a photograph was taken of a visitor actually feeling one of Sarti’s works with her hands in awe. Curiously
enough, a comment written by one of Sarti’s followers on his page on Facebook
was “Don’t touch!” However, this
seems to be something quite unavoidable for viewers, who seem to be
irresistibly attracted to his art works and
to have this urge to touch them in
order to fully embrace and experience his creations.
Another extraordinary exhibit
by Saimir Strati is a giant mosaic of Michael Jackson (2009) made entirely of
paint brushes, a personal tribute to the King of the Pop form an artist who has
always been inspired by music. This work seems to grow out of its own context
due to the rich, thick texture given by the hair out of which the paint brushes
are made. Strati has actually produced a mosaic series under the title “The
Four Seasons”, based on Vivaldi’s concerto, in which each season is represented
by a different musical instrument, and a portrait of Elvis Presley about two
meters high, in which he used over four hundred CDs.
His most recent project,
however, is a huge mosaic using over one million coffee beans of different
shades, “One World, One family, One Coffee”, which he expects to complete by
December 12 this year. Once finished, this unique artwork is expected to
measure 25 square meters and weigh about 140kg and is bound to set a new
Guinness Record for Strati.
With his incredible talent and
patience, Saimir Strati has been proving that, in fact, beauty can be in the eye of the beholder, since he has been able to
bring humble materials to the level of great works of art, which have won admiration and recognition throughout
the world. On the other hand, he has offered us all a fresh and unexpected way
of looking at those materials, endowing them with a dignity they didn’t have so
far. Let there be beauty...
No comments:
Post a Comment