“Cracking is the gap of the contemporary man struggling between a primary naturalness and a future that is more and more artificial.”
“CRACKING ART”: comes from the English verb “to crack:” to split, to break, to crack, to crash, to yield. “Cracking” is also the term for the chemical reaction that occurs when converting raw crude oil into plastic.
The group founded the REgeneration Art Project: public art using recyclable plastic.
With their bold visuals, the artists of the Cracking Art Group aim to link their environmental consciousness to individuals through their installaJons, in which super size and vividly colored animals appear unexpectedly in everyday places. The surprise of seeing an ordinary subject made extraordinary by its size, color, and locaJon makes passersby stop…. These big vibrant animals invite viewers to re?examine their perspecJves on urban life and inspire people to play with their ciJes. It is the artists’ hope that their art will eventually enable us to regenerate our natural and social environment into a healthy and animated space.
They use recyclable plastic for its own aesthetic appeal, accepting the inevitability of our world becoming more and more artificial, and using the material’s very artificiality to express their artistic sense. The plastic triggers a social phenomenon – both the material and the art are available to everyone. Using recyclable plastic also demonstrates an intelligent use of this material, so vital in today’s world.
Cracking Art has brought its message of social and environmental awareness to over 600 exhibiJons worldwide, including an installaJon of blue turtles for the G8 Environmental Summit in Italy. The group’s first appearance in the U.S. was in December 2010 with, as one journalist dubbed it, the “escargatoire” of pink snails in Miami.
Temporality and eternity are juxtaposed in the art of William Sweetlove. His message is that we must recycle and invest in the technology to do so. We need synthetic products in our life today, and they are derivatives of petroleum, and are here for eternity; nothing can destroy them. When we no longer have petroleum, we won’t have any more synthetics. Soon, as the climate changes, there will be too much seawater in the world but not enough drinking water. Sweetlove puts boots on his dogs, gives water bosles to the penguins, and puts back-packs on cloned frogs to give them some support. He has always been inspired by the concept of art not as an aesthetic endeavor but where social, political and ecological issues are involved. He doesn’t consider himself a “green” individual but he wants to leave a message behind without polluting the world.
1993: Six European arJst form the CRACKING ART GROUP
Renzo Nucara
Carlo Rizzel
Alex Angi
Marco Veronese
William Sweetlove
Kicco