Annarita Serra: Turning Trash Plastic Into Art 0 Comments

Annarita Serra: Turning Trash Plastic Into Art

"I had two dreams in my life: working with art and saving the sea. I have discovered over the years that one helps me to fulfil the other, that art helps me to save the sea. I know that I am doing it because today, after twenty years, I am no longer alone".

Annarita Serra is Sardinian by birth and Milanese by adoption. As a young girl she attended High School in Milan, specializing in the restoring of old paintings and attended the Architecture faculty, not completing it because she started working.

One day travelling in New Zealand for work, she re-experiences the atmosphere and the colours of the sea, atmosphere and colours that were taking her back to her Sardinian sea, and thus decides to return to her native island virtually in a memories journey. The trip ends in Piscinas, on November of 20 years ago.

Strolling along the 50 km of coastline washed by a sea of incredible colour and rich in pure sand dunes, she begins to collect hundreds of pieces of plastic rubbish, smoothed by the sea waves, in fact disfiguring the marvel of that beach. The sea has asked her for help and she wants to listen by dedicating it her art. And this myriad of plastic pieces in the hands of the artist is transformed into a work of creativity. 

Annarita creates her compositions by no longer only using the paintbrush but also using the screwdriver, screws, glue and hammer, and begins to work on this colourful patchwork as a recycle art master.

From the sea of ​​Sardinia she takes everything that returns to the beach: coins, plastic caps, PC keys, Cotton Buds, coffee capsules, broken bijoux, metal lids, African flip-flops, broken toys, doll's legs and arms, little cars ... and she turns them into famous images, some of which:

  • Genoa Lantern (100 x 100 cm) Plastic from the Sea 2009

  • Freedom is Participation (Statue of Liberty - 100 x 100 cm) Plastic from the Sea 2011

  • The Mad Hatter (cm 90 x 90) Plastic from the Sea 2012

  • Venus (by Botticelli - cm 100 x 100) Plastic from the Sea 2012

  • Betty Boop (cm 90 x 90) Coffee Capsules 2014

  • Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring - 100 x 100 cm) Plastic from the Sea 2014

  • Frida (self-portrait - 90 x 90 cm) Plastic from the Sea 2014

But it is a trash-art that has very little trash. Annarita creates a new product of elegant colour shades fulfilling the two dreams of her life: working with art and saving the sea, sensitizing the need for fighting plastic that is killing the sea.

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Written by Daniela Toti

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