Creating art in a throw-away society: metamorphoses in Eduardo Paolozzi’s and Pamela Longobardi’s sculptural works
Creating art in a throw-away society: metamorphoses in Eduardo Paolozzi’s and Pamela Longobardi’s sculptural works

Summary/Abstract: Two of the most important representatives of early eco-art that emerged from the ideas of reusing, reinventing, and transforming the waste produced in the 1950s UK overconsuming society and the 2000s plastic-haunted nature, wildlife, and especially marine environment, are the British early Pop Art artist Eduardo Paolozzi and the American eco-artist and activist Pamela Longobardi, respectively. The idea of metamorphosis in their sculptural works constitutes one of the most inventive ways of not just turning waste materials into works of art, but of becoming a strong voice of protest against the phenomenon of postwar overconsumption and environmental pollution, correspondingly. This paper aims to present and comment on how Eduardo Paolozzi managed to turn the 1950s capitalist phenomenon of planned obsolescence into sculpture. It also aims to discuss how Pamela Longobardi’s activism, directly connected to her artistic genius, led to the rebirth of marine plastic waste into impressive sculptural compositions and installations with a strong ecological symbolism. In both cases, the importance of metamorphosis as an agent of sculptural art formation in two different eras which, however, bear the same sociocultural stigma of throw-away crisis, are sought thoroughly.

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