When Noah Deledda empties an aluminum can, he doesn’t throw it into a recycling bin. He reuses it, creating aluminum can sculptures by methodically denting small areas of the cans into patterns with his thumbs. He documented his practiced sculpting step-by-step in the video above. From his site:
“Through sculpture I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object. In this case, a common disposable object. The technique itself also embodies this theme of elevation by implementing the incidental gestures of disposal, The scratch dent and Crease. Through artistic principles these actions are re-imagined. The scratch for instance, when repeated and refined, has a polishing affect which reveals a brilliant raw material of the otherwise ordinary consumer item.
Likewise, crushing denting and creasing become a method to create design, precision, symmetry and balance. Mind you this process developed over years through trial and error and lots of practice. It’s important to me that this is all carried out by hand without special tools or extraordinary manipulation. The shaping of the can is a thumb driven process that cooperates with the form of the cylinder.”
Follow Deledda on Instagram to see more of his aluminum can sculptures.
Watch this next: The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can.
h/t Boing Boing.
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