What’s with the trash sculptures emerging from walls as if from another dimension? I’ve come across four of them here in Portugal. So similar in structure and style, they MUST all be created by the same artist.
A little internet research turned up artist Bordalo II (Bordalo Segundo). Bordalo II uses our discarded stuff to construct these sculptures as part of his desire to bring awareness of both pollution and of endangered species. The animals seem to plead with their eyes. “Look at where your unstoppable consumerism and disdain for the planet has got us!”
Bordalo II has dozens of installations around the world.
Don’t confuse Bordalo II with Bordallo. Bordallo sculpted animals also but his were were porcelain. Snakes, snails, frogs, monkeys. Sliming up a wall, climbing up a tree, slithering through a garden hedge.
I’ve seen Bordalo II’s Half Rabbit (Nova de Gaia – across the river from Porto), Half Gorilla (Coimbra), Fox (Lisbon) and Half Owl Half Stretched (Coimbra).
I found the first one looking around Porto on google maps. It’s amazing, sometimes disconcerting, what gets a little icon on a google map. Anyway, I was futzing with the map looking for things nearby we might want to see after we finished our perusal of Planet Cork. There was Half Rabbit! At first I thought, maybe a British-style pub where you could order rabbit dishes. Ick. But no, Half Rabbit had the “sight of interest” icon, not the “place to eat” icon.
I found Half Gorilla the same way. Zooming in and out the google map of Coimbra. Because, when you zoom out and back in again, names pop up and you have to fiddle to get back to the magnification where an interesting name became visible for an instant. You’ve all experienced this, yes? its not just me?
The other two, happy accident. I took my eyes off my feet for a moment (hey, these stone sidewalks are an uneven mine field of sunken, raised, missing stones) and looked up to see a huge trash animal on a wall in front of me.
What is the “Half” about? Some of Bordalo II’s sculptures are positioned on the corner of a building giving the impression the animal is folded back on itself. One half brightly colored, the other half shades of grey and black and white.
I’ve posted pics of all four here on the blog but now I’ve put them in a google album so you can more easily look at them full size. WordPress crops photos when I post them in the blog. Sometimes interesting things go missing. Huh, does WordPress have a secret environmental message?
Update: after posting this, i discovered two more in Lisbon. A bee, and two birds (maybe storks?). They are included in the photos link below.
It looks like he has done quite a few of these sculptures in different places around the world, I like them !!!
I like them too. Found a bee today!