Saturday, September 22, 2012

Chewing Gum Sculptures by Maurizio Savini

I have to say this first: I am not a fan of chewing gum! Even surprisingly I tend to keep my distance from it. But this Italian artist Maurizio Savini has spent the last ten years creating amazing sculptures out of thousands of pieces of bright pink chewing gum.
Chewing gum may not be the most common media of the art world, but to 39-year-old Maurizio Savini it’s the most versatile material available. It’s easy to manipulate when warm, and can be cut with a knife, just like clay. Regardless of what many may think, chewing gum sculpting is an established art form, recognized all over the world, and Savini’s artworks are eagerly awaited by critics and connoisseurs, alike.
To The Telegraph, the artist based in Rome, said: "The reason I like to use chewing gum is because it seemed to me an amazingly versatile material compared to those used by the traditional arts such as painting. Despite its history of it belonging to popular culture, chewing gum does not have a statute of its own within institutional art. I believe that in my work on this material is redeemed and acquires a capacity and it has an expressive dignity of its own.”
Disgusting as it may seem to some people, Maurizio Savini uses thousands of chewed up pieces of bubble gum for each of his sculptures. He molds them into the desired shapes and when the whole thing is done, he fixes the sculpture with formaldehyde and antibiotics. The amazingly detailed chewing gum sculptures of Maurizio Savini have sold from up to $60,000 each. Whether you like it or not, this is  the extraordinary level of talent and creativity of an artist. Here are some of his sculptures:








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