David Collage

I am an anglo-italian artist based in Italy. I create art across the digital and physical realms exploring the concept of ‘Identity’ using different media, from 3d physical paper collage portraits to NFTs avatars (ed. The Other Avatars first NFTs Saatchi Art project). Art and Creativity have always been a form of escapism and survival for me, a kind of virtual world where to find peace. The Virtual/Digital and the Real/Physical are part of my practice. The main material for my physical works is usually recycled paper that I repurpose from magazines, books, catalogues etc.. Paper is a very interesting and complex material in itself, but it becomes more intriguing when printed, as it turns into a binder of messages. Having been trained as an architect, I can’t help myself from planning each of my works. I have developed different techniques and I like to choose the one that intuitively attracts me in that moment, to balance the other very rational approach to planning. The subjects of my works are often chosen around the topic of identity, including its continuous transformation, its intangibility and its cryptic nature. My choice of people as subjects - either ordinary or celebrities - is aimed at exploring the inadequacy of a portrait to describe that person. With an image, it is possible to fix only a fragment of the complex nature of their identity. Printed-paper steeped with fragmented messages is, therefore, the perfect medium to represent this complex, fragile and ungraspable nature. Using everyday objects such as paper, I also want people to investigate into our consumerist society where we conceive our goals in life through acquiring goods that we do not need and where our identity is defined by what we buy and exhibit. Like our identities, my portraits are fluid and mobile, and our perception of them changes as we move around them. From up close, the subjects become abstract compositions, making the viewer engage with matters beyond what is immediately visible, and through this I try to raise public awareness about other issues relating to our environment, our privacy and the complex notion of time too.