Coming soon
Federico Pestilli’s Nature Mort to debut this fall in the UK

Nature Morte, the latest series of young Italian artist Federico Pestilli, is set to launch this autumn at a super special location (but we can’t tell you where just yet). At the very core of this elegant body of work sits a simple message; the inherent beauty of our planet will be smothered if we don’t stop the way we are currently living our lives. In each composition, Pestilli wraps a flower in plastic. This synthetic “shroud” will, of course, eventually destroy the organic beauty of the flower. These images are therefore the ultimate still lives, or nature morte, which literally translates to “dead nature,” which the French coined in the mid-18th century. It’s a series most suggestive of the layered symbolism of the genre and is a poignant reminder of the transience of life and the ever-present threat of death. The graceful tension between the color and life in each image, against the plastic pulls on our consciousness: the compositions are at once beautiful and heartbreaking. As Pestilli himself writes, "The merits and shortcomings of plastic naturally reflect humanity’s own virtues and limitations. To govern our daily lives we have created durable materials. From bronze, to iron, to plastics, we have challenged Nature’s own transformative power. In our desire to control Nature, we invented a tool to separate us from it. Plastic’s primary function is separation. Its property to isolate, contain, protect inner from outer matter provides solutions to many human needs. Its durability or resistance to degradability, on the other hand, represents a threat to every living organisms.”

At the start of this year The Washington Post published an article with equal amounts of accuracy and alarmism. “‘Everything Is Not Going to Be Okay’: How to Live With Constant Reminders That the Earth Is in Trouble.” The article is a lyrical but blunt summary.  Climate change is not just a physical fact, but also as a psychical one. We are doomed and we can hardly process that fact let alone accept it. While an exhibition certainly can’t solve the problem, it can certainly go some distance to get us to accept the grave reality of the situation and ultimately change our behaviors. Toward this effort, we are donating 20% of all proceeds from the sale of a Pestilli print to a charity that helps prevent plastic from reaching our oceans. If you acquire a print, you get to pick which of the following three charities your money goes to: Tearfund. Plastic Oceans or Surfers against sewage.