53recyclinginternational.com | November/December | 2021
Plastics sPecial
Plastic paintings:
one part poetry;
one part mystery
They say beauty lies in the eyes
of the beholder and that’s defi-
nitely true for Annarita Serra
who ‘paints’ with the plastics we
carelessly throw away.
Italian artist Annarita Serra was born
in Sardinia and grew up in Milan
where she owns a studio. After devel-
oping her creative skills in high school,
she went on to study architecture. The
beginning of her artistic career was in
2006 when she organised her first
exhibitions across the country.
Serra’s style is colourful and romantic,
yet slightly surreal. She says she likes
using her talent to give plastic scrap a
second chance so it can be reborn. ‘I
reject our society’s conception of what
we call plastic waste. Objects found
on the beach or on the street are usu-
ally misunderstood as insignificant
rubbish,’ Serra maintains. ‘To me, their
existence is pure poetry – although
maybe a little sad.’
So the artist tries to translate plastic
scrap into a positive message through
art. The way she views it, post-con-
sumer plastics are a unique material to
work with. ‘They have been rocked
and smoothed by oceans and rivers,
and exposed to sun, rain and wind.’
Serra attempts to honour their turbu-
lent journey by telling their story to the
public – a public with more willing ears
these days to listen. She is glad that
people don’t simply see junk when they
admire her pieces: they appreciate the
bigger picture. Serra explains how she
loves working with plastics as it allows
her to communicate through different
colours, shapes and textures. It fasci-
nates her that these littered objects all
originate from mass production.
The element of water is especially
import to Serra, as she chooses to
source most of her materials from
beaches and riverbeds. It’s her way of
giving a social commentary on the
pollution of our oceans.
Her most popular works include ‘scrap
art portraits’ of cultural icons such as
famous Hollywood actors Marilyn
Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Johnny
Depp (in the role of Alice in
Wonderland’s Mad Hatter). Other piec-
es depict Mexican painter Frida Kahlo
or famous works by Klimt and the titu-
lar character from The Birth of Venus.
Serra says the hundreds of fragments
of plastic are meant to give the
impression of vibrant brush strokes. In
that sense, her style is an invitation to
the viewer, asking them to move clos-
er and find out what the ‘painting’
before them is all about. ‘It’s a mod-
ern interpretation of what art could
be. And very few people recognise
the “rubbish” they are looking at.’
The point is to challenge the viewer’s
ideal of beauty and what defines it.
Fotobijschrift
KaderKop
??A u T h o r Kirstin Linnenkoper
53_scrapart.indd 53 11-11-21 09:17
