Artist: Aldo Muzzarelli
The Big Cocoon
GJ: How were you contacted to create this piece?
AM: The Mauldin Cultural Council annually organizes a sculpture contest to locate each winner on the Mauldin Public Art Trail.
In 2019, I was the winner of this contest. Therefore, it was my responsibility to develop a monumental piece, more or less the size of the works that had won this contest in previous years.
GJ: What is the inspiration for this piece?
AM: Every year the contest proposes a theme to be developed by the participants. That year the theme was youth, passion for change.
This idea has a lot to do with the topic that I present in my artworks. In my artistic work, the theme of butterflies is very frequent — so much so that in the country where I was born (Venezuela), I am still known as “the painter of butterflies.”
For me, the butterfly represents freedom, continuous change and happiness.
My proposal was to create a sculpture in which the figure of a child, representing youth, is shown with the cocoon of a butterfly in his hands and surrounded, in turn, by many butterflies. The young boy rests within a kind of rectangular frame. The framework would represent the barriers that must be overcome. Definitely youth, like a cocoon, carries with it all that potential energy necessary for change, the desire to fight, to transform, to face, to fly, to move forward.
In addition to this first meaning, I hope that the character of the artwork achieves many other connotations. For example, the importance of living in a country like this, where young people have the possibility to choose their future, to select peace. And I mean this because Venezuela has been going through a terrible political and social crisis for the last two decades that has cut the lives of many young people and the freedom of many others.
Only education, work, culture and well-established principles lead to freedom and peace.
Photo providedGJ: What materials did you use to create this statue?
AM: The artwork is made of iron and resin, painted to imitate bronze.
GJ: How long did it take to create? What was the creation process like?
AM: The piece was made in two parts. The iron part first. The boy’s figure was first made of clay and burned. Once burned, I made a rubber mold of it. I used the mold and made the resin piece. It took me about six months to finish it.
GJ: What is your favorite part of the piece and why?
AM: My favorite part is the boy. I really enjoyed modeling it. I truly believe that anatomy is the most fascinating part of sculptural work.
GJ: When was it completed?
AM: The piece was ready in late September 2019, two months before it was unveiled.
