recycled beauty: Chandeliers by Carolina Fontoura Alzaga

Amazing. Carolina uses bike parts to make these beauties in her series entitled, Connect. "In her work Carolina integrates her hybrid identity, global perspective and socio-political interests."

"Connect is a series of sculptures made of recycled bicycle parts of varying size and shape. This body of work draws inspiration from Victorian chandeliers, DIY and bike culture, and the use of unartistic materials.

This work addresses class codes, power dynamics, reclaimed agency, and ecological responsibility. The bicycle chandelier is the conceptual point of departure for this ouvre. In this series the traditional chandelier is seen as a bourgeois commodity and the bicycle parts as a symbol for self-propelled movement. These subversive objects challenge the aesthetics of wealth by visually contrasting the classic elegance of the candelabrum with the newfound elegance of discarded, mechanical bicycle parts.

Connect is a metaphor of potentiality, a statement, and a proposal."