Artur Bordalo, also known as Bordalo II, is a Portuguese artist who is best known for his series of artworks called “Trash Animals.” As part of the series, Bordalo collects discarded materials and items and then uses them to create intriguing animal sculptures.
Bordalo’s “Trash Animals” pieces come in various formats. The “Big Trash Animals” works are built on a larger scale and almost exclusively with garbage, “aiming to provoke a different look at our consumerist habits.” According to his official website, he created close to 200 “Big Trash Animals,” and these sculptures are currently scattered all around the world.
Bordalo also creates animal-inspired artworks out of discarded material in a gallery format. They are divided into Neutral, Half Half, and Plastic Animals subseries and allow the artist to further explore his original ideas. In most cases, each of these smaller pieces uses “textured wood, reusing doors, shutters, windows, and benches of vacant buildings” as canvas, while materials and items like “plastics, electronic material, fabrics, light metals, and children’s toys” are to create the subject of the artwork.
“The smaller scale allows the use of a greater variety of materials for the composition of these works,” the artist explains.
Bordalo’s works are often exhibited in his native Portugal while also making way to Europe and the United States in the past. He also shares them on his social media. Here are our favorite ones.
