We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Lara Favaretto / Italy b.1973 / Gummo IV 2012 / Iron, car wash brushes and electrical motors / 300 x 450 x 150cm / Purchased 2012 with funds from Tim Fairfax, AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Lara Favaretto
Lara FavarettoGummo IV 2012
Not Currently on Display
Lara Favaretto transforms functional objects into surprising artworks. Gummo IV is made up of a group of five car wash brushes, in shades of blue, black and purple. A motor causes each one to spin around at different times. In motion, the artwork looks like an abstract painting.
Born in Treviso, Lara Favaretto lives and works in Turin. The artist calls her artworks macchine del divertimento (‘fun machines’ or machines of entertainment), a description that points to their carnivalesque character.
In her art, found objects — usually standard issue — are animated so they are stripped of their intended function and become imbued with a sense of magic, fantasy and play. Disrupting the conventional order of things, Favaretto transforms useful, functional things into impractical, but strangely engaging, ones.
The artist produces works that reveal the absurdity and pathos of everyday life and commonplace objects.
Discussion Questions
1. How does the movement of the brushes engage the audience?
2. Explain how the artist has imbued her work with a sense of magic and play.
Classroom Activities
1. Collect a variety of common objects that could be incorporated into an artwork that becomes playful when animated. The sculpture (or mobile) could be constructed outside to reflect the sunlight or to move in the wind, or it could be constructed inside to move by touch or an electric fan.
2. Identify an everyday object and brainstorm the ways it could be deconstructed and reconstructed in order to create new meaning or purpose for the object. Transform your ideas into a finished artwork.