ANTIGONISH, N.S. — Local artists Anne Camozzi and Nancy Turniawan have created a joint mosaic art piece which will be unveiled at Antigonight: Art after Dark Festival, taking place Sept. 12 to 14.
The project has an environmental aspect to it as the artists, with support, collected thousands of plastic lids to create the mosaic.
“Turniawan, who did a mosaic wall for the local People’s Place Library, and Camozzi, who did paintings for banners for the library, discovered they were both collecting plastic lids with the same idea of using them to make a mural, inspired by other artists (example - Elizabeth Perkins in England) doing the same thing in other communities, and by their lifelong interest in preserving nature,” an email message provided to the Casket read.
“Plastic lasts hundreds of years and fills our oceans. How could we bring this to the attention of our communities through art?”
In a shared statement, the artists talked about the objective of the too many colourful plastic pieces.
“We were both shocked at the incredible number of different shapes, colours and designs meant to entice the consumer to buy a product, based on its lid, and that none of these lids were recyclable, despite some of them being as hard a plastic as a child’s toy or dishes,” they said.
“Also surprising was the sheer number of lids that we discovered we each used, individually, even though we considered ourselves environmentally aware … it astonished us.”
Along with the message sent, an excerpt from a video of the work being done – which will be shown during Antigonight – was also included, and, in it, Camozzi shares another surprising and disturbing thought.
“An outcome for me; the incredible amount of small plastic, micro shavings and little bits, that resulted just from us moving all these lids around,” she said. “The awareness that plastic – even if we begin moving these bigger objects – these things are breaking down into extremely fine, fine particles.”
The project is called transforming environmental attitudes through community art-making, and it will be unveiled Friday evening during Antigonight, which happens at the library and adjacent Chisholm Park.
