"I started working on Buddleia, Fruits and Hostages, in Spring 2019. It was the time when Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for the Future blossomed.
The buddleia is a plant with dark green and gray lanceolate leaves, which produces clusters of lilac flowers and proliferates in highly urbanized areas. In London it is omnipresent. The one pictured is a life-size copy of the plant that occupies the factory next to my studio. I spent time observing its roots, piercing the stucco between the bricks and dominating the shabby space.
At first I looked at invasive plants with sadness, thinking of the diversity they had defeated, but since I saw the vigor with which they reclaim buildings, they seemed to me a reminder of the fragility and precariousness of our activities.
The painting is divided into two-thirds by a river. The south bank is occupied by a bucolic scene of harmony between species. A child plays, his mother rests leaning against a tree, in the branches there is a nest full of eggs, a dog observes them and shares the lawn with a pregnant monkey. Everyone is quiet and continues to breed and take up more space.
On the opposite bank, a majestic buddleia overflows into the landscape, holding homunculus with flower heads hostage.
The materials I chose are very specific: the maple wood is rosy; the beeswax inlays have a temperature similar to our body; and the edges of the table are wrapped in a rubber band that limits the space but rounds it like a breathing belly. In recent months I have thought a lot about the fact that nature has a blind power and ecology is a science necessary for our survival, not just a form of altruism." - Gaia FUGAZZA