Pedro Pires, Container / invisibility, installation view, Lagos Biennial 2019.
Pedro Pires, Container / urban, installation view, Lagos Biennial 2019.
Born Luanda, Angola (1978), lives and works in Angola
Container / invisibility 2019
Concrete, plastic boxes and rubber boots
Container / urban (2019)
Concrete, plastic baskets and rubber boots
Courtesy of Gallery MOMO (South Africa) and This Is Not A White Cube (Angola)
In 2016, then based in Angola, Pedro Pires began a far-reaching research project on parallel economies and urban environments. This research catalysed the artist’s Container series, an ongoing body of site-specific sculptures constructed out of locally sourced domestic objects such as boots and plastic storage containers. Whether in the form of boxes or buckets, the containers are always assembled vertically to suggest human figures as is the case with the two sculptures presented at the Lagos Biennial 2019.
Artist’s statement
My aim is to create an anthropomorphic volume that invites the public to rethink the aesthetic and utilitarian value of these objects, and how they impact our lives. The way that the boxes are arranged, and their different degrees of transparency, invites us to see through them and forge unexpected connections between our body and the surrounding environment.
