Cork in modern art
In modern art, cork plays an extraordinary role more and more often. Even ordinary wine cork stoppers with the right hands can become a work of art. One of the contemporary artists who uses this ecological material is Daniel Kubini, born in Czechoslovakia in 1983. He uses wine corks to create spectacular large-format cork portraits.
In his studio on Wasserfeldstrasse he set a special example of this and his first major work: Freddy Mercury, ex-lead singer of the group “Queen”. With 330 hours of work and almost 12,000 corks, he created a large-format painting. His other work is a globe 160 cm in diameter and 2 meters high, which the artist spent 2 years creating and about 17,000 corks.
In another part of Europe lives the Albanian Saimir Strati, whose fame echoed around the world. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records with six of its enormous mosaics. Strati applied its cork mosaic to the facade of the Sheraton Hotel in Tirana in 27 labor-intensive days: 229,764 corks, spread over an area of 91.87 square meters. It thus set a new world record for the largest cork mosaic.
Even more spectacular works are done by Alexandre Farto, also known as Vhils. His enormous works are intended as an element of the city landscape. Known for his portraits carved directly onto the walls of buildings around the world, Portuguese artist Vhils recently experimented with cork, creating a gigantic, almost frieze scene of faces, words and patterns, entitled Contraste.
Elementy dzieła różnią się głębią, co sprawia, że faluje ono w miarę przesuwania się wzroku, jakby fragmenty docierały do widza. Twarze są renderowane w poplamione, prawie pikselowe zagęszczenie, pojawiające się wyraźnie pod pewnymi kątami i całkowicie znikające pod innymi.
Kontrast jest duży, złożony, hałaśliwy i zmienia się, niezależnie od tego, jak na to spojrzymy. Prace można obecnie oglądać w Covilhã w Portugalii, w centrum danych Portugal Telecom.