Artist Research: Gilles Cenazandotti and Thomas Dambo

Gilles Cenazandotti and Thomas Dambo I would consider both artists and activists, expressing their concerns for environmental issues through their art and projects. Cenazandotti's 2016 exhibition 'Reclaimed and Reimagined' involved many animal sculptures constructed from scavenged plastic washed up on beaches. This choice of material creates semi-robotic unnatural animal forms that plays with irony as this excessive human waste is such a huge pollutant it is to blame for the endangerment of the animal species Cenazandotti chooses to construct. My favourite pieces are his bear ones including the polar bear pictured below, probably partially because I seem to have come to terms with a personal bear obsession this year, and his baboons. The attention to detail in the baboons is really admirable, the stature and facial expressions seem to match what you would expect of the real thing, creating an accurate depiction in such a challenging material.

Thomas Dambo I personally find very interesting for his motives, inventiveness and ambition. Dambo always works with recycled materials creating a range of ambitious sculpture projects that are usually displayed publicly and benefit a cause or community through the engagement of the public with themes of nature. One example I really like is his 'Forgotten Giants' project consisting of six huge wooden giants hidden in the outskirts of Copenhagen, encouraging people to venture out in the natural landscape. Giant 'Teddy Friendly' is built with an extended arm so that he has a purpose too of helping users cross a stream he resides by. To make these ambitious projects, Dambo has a lot of help from volunteers including crafts people and community groups like unemployment centres to build his ambitious projects like the giants and his very recent work of building a plastic forest from waste plastic. I have always had an interest in participatory arts and have recently been thinking about how art could be educational in this field, so Dambo combines all the features I've wanted to know more about and work with: political environmental contexts, engaging with a community, educating and being purposeful.