ABOVE AND BEYOND (SOTTO SOPRA)

Above and Beyond, its original italian title "Sotto Sopra", is inspired by the artist's ongoing interest in nature, especially trees, and created with the intent to be thought-provoking and to reflect on the deeply essential aspects of life that are hidden from view.
The iconic tree... survivor of eons, breath of the Earth. At once sturdy and intricate, dignified and determined, exuberant and tranquil.
Yet as humankind, our perspective is limited. We observe the branches outstretched but not the roots underneath. They are reciprocated in importance, if not in appearance, each as vital to us as they are to the tree.
In the chaos of life, we must pause to consider the necessity of both – what we can see and what we cannot – and this is the crux of the artist’s vision.
Above and Beyond is an adjustable sculpture, suited for an indoor public display. It is built in sections so that it can be modified to fit many spaces and locations. In keeping with the artist's aim to bring nature to an urban setting, all materials used to construct the tree originate from the natural world – untreated wood from the forest is covered with papier-mâché composed of recycled newspapers, held together with an organic bonding agent.

Material : wood, papier-mâché
Date : 2021-2023
Dimension : h. 450 x 700 x 550 cm

HELP

A four elements installation made with recycled storefront mannequins, held together by metal rods and plates and dramatically repositioned to read the word HELP.
Each sculpture represents one of the four letters: H, E ,L ,P.
Newspapers articles laying on the floor and chairs facing the walls surround the group of headless, female figures in their silent, static dance calling the viewer to think and react upon the status and vulnerability of an unequal global two gender society.
The newspapers clips tell tales and stories of intellectual and physical manipulation and aggression, the chairs facing the walls an ongoing lack of response and action.

Material : mannequins, metal rods and plates, newspaper articles, chairs
Date : 2021
Dimension : 185 x 420 x 230 cm

TOTEM

Plastic car bumpers, positioned one on top of the other, juxtaposed to knitted wool panels, become an industrial totem, concrete and yet mysterious, vulnerable yet strong.
TOTEM brings together an eclectic array of pieces comprised of and expressing a fascination with familiar everyday objects rescued from the senseless wasteland of a consumer society, blindly generating and then discarding waste.
Combined with organic material gleaned from nature, this work is made of recycled and recyclable materials that are malleable, that change over time, and are infused with history.
Text by Colleen Gray

Material : car bumpers, wool, wood, metal
Date : 2021
Dimension : 360 x 150 x 74 cm

MAIZ (Corn)

Contemporary corn plants carry material histories within their stalks and cobs. Corn provides the foundation for much of the world’s agricultural industries and each plant is a product of centuries of genetic manipulation. Native to the Americas, the plant called mahiz was an agricultural staple for the Indigenous Taíno peoples. In the 16th century, Spanish invaders colonized the Americas, laying waste to Indigenous cultures through colonization and the spread of disease. Yet maiz (the Spanish term for mahiz) survived and flourished, and today, known a corn, it is one of the most ubiquitous crops harvested for human and animal consumption on the planet.
At first glance, Santini’s sculptural installation “Maiz” presents three stands of golden corn that seem to be growing out of the gallery floor. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that these naturalistic forms have been cast in bronze, a medium long associated with Classical, Western ideals. The sculpture adopts a hybrid stance, suggesting a fluid connection between past and present cultures. While acknowledging the cultural devastations of European colonialism and industrial incursions on nature, Maiz also makes an aesthetic appeal. Elegant in their earthy simplicity, these sculptural stalks of corn speak to deep, material bonds between historically and culturally diverse traditions and practices.

Material : bronze, copper
Date : 2017-2020
Dimension : 222 x 500 x 110 cm
Place : 3680 de la Montagne Building Complex, Montréal, Canada

Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), Montréal, Canada

MOBILE

MOBILE is a floating sculpture, conceived to suspend from the ceiling at the center of a stairwell. It is composed of five sections, each an actual tree branch, from the olive, oak, laurel, maple and cypress varieties. Each section carries a particular symbolism and features bronze cast directly onto the branches. The branches are separated and hung with a system of stainless steel wires, that allows the sculpture a certain mobility and rotation, caused by human touch or air draft. As you climb or descend the stairs, a close view of each branch is revealed, with its details, particularities and individual character and humour. These details are not perceivable from the top or the bottom of the stairs, where you have a an overall view of the sculpture. Nature, living within it, bringing the outside indoors within a specific architectural space, was the main concern of this project.

Material : bronze, iron-or, stainless steel
Date : 2015
Dimension : 300 x 164 x 164 cm
Place : private collection, Montreal, Canada

LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!

This work refers to an escape from the modern world of disposability, consumerism, waste, non-renewable products, and sometimes lack of respect for nature. A magic carpet of sorts, this piece offers the observer a path back to a time before we lost our footing in the natural world, before we started trampling on the delicate balance that is essential to survive and thrive on this planet.
It is a reminder that the origins of many of the cheap, synthetic, stylized products we use today were once simple, objects that were found in nature, used in their natural state, and returned to nature.

Cette oeuvre réfère à l’évasion d’une réalité moderne caractérisée par la perte, le gaspillage, le consumérisme, les produits non renouvelables et un manque de respect envers la nature. Vue d’un certain angle, cette œuvre est un tapis volant. Il offre à l’observateur un chemin de retour à une époque antérieure à celle-ci, avant qu’on perde pied dans le monde naturel et qu’on commence à piétiner sur l’équilibre précaire essentiel à notre développement et à notre survie.
C’est un rappel que l’origine de plusieurs des objets que l’on utilise aujourd’hui, bon marché, synthétiques, stylisés, étaient autrefois trouvés dans la nature, utilisés dans leur état naturel, et remis à la nature.

Material : bamboo, sorghum branches, rope, metal
Date : 2018-2019
Dimension : 244 x 226 x 20 cm
Place : Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, Canada

RAMAZZA (Garden broom)

Material : bronze, copper
Date : 2020-2022
Dimension : 180 x 94 x 63 cm
Place : Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Canada
Allegroitalia Lords of Verona Hotel Boutique, Verona, Italy

LAST WINDOW

A window represents light, entry, and opening as well as a barrier and confinement. What if your world was a channel with window after window opening your mind to more and more possibilities until the final barrier, the last window was reached and there was nowhere more to go? LAST WINDOW is a work that signifies an end and a beginning, the hope of a window with the finality of concrete. What lies on the other side of sanity seems dark; it may not always be understood by from the perspective of sanity and clear light.

Material : resin
Date : 2018
Dimension : 175 x 114 x 10 cm

STELLA (Star)

STELLA is made with materials from the site -- a combination of clay, sand and hay. A coat of oyster shells has been inserted and layered into the compact mixture.
STELLA alludes to the origin of the site - the ocean of Champlain - sand, clay and seashells are still found in the ground.
Oysters are small, insignificant and forgotten but part of an ecosystem seriously affected by pollution. STELLA could be a giant starfish that resurfaced where the ocean was there once or, when the sun lights up through the trees the multiple tones of the oyster shells, a star fallen from the sky.

Material : sand, clay, hay, willow branches, oyster shells
Type : installation
Date : 2013
Dimension : 50 x 330 x 330 cm
Place : Land Art, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Canada

XTINCT

This life-size sculpture depicts a fully-grown male polar bear lying on its stomach, head and body supported by a wooden structure and filled with organic materials so that its full dimensions and power are perceived. This mass is covered by layers of wire mesh to which hundreds of oyster shells have been woven thus imitating the thick and uneven fur of the polar bear with its beautiful palette of tones.
“The polar bear is a powerful symbol of the Arctic and its people. The aim of the sculpture is to raise awareness on the issue of extinction and the endangerment of the polar bear, the largest and most powerful land carnivore, and the small and often overlooked oyster, once thriving along the Canadian and U.S eastern seaboard and now also threatened by climate change. XTINCT is designed to make viewers reflect and act on these issues,” states Laura Santini.
XTINCT is made up of organic and recycled materials. The repetitive, methodical and tedious technique of weaving the oyster shells emulates the irreversible and relentless cycle of destruction that is occurring on the planet.
XTINCT is designed to make viewers reflect and act on these issues.

Material : organic matter (paper,leaves,branches,cotton,wool) metal net and wire, wood, oyster shells
Date : 2010-2012
Dimension : 110 x 252 x 290 cm
Place : Centre de Recherche du CHUM, Montreal, Canada

VERITAS

Commissioned for the centenary of Selwyn House School, a kindergarten student, dressed in school uniform, reaches for truthfulness "Veritas", the school motto.

Material : bronze, steel, granite
Date : 2007-2010
Dimension : 185 x 400 x 170 cm
Place : Selwyn House School, Montreal, Canada

NIDO (Nest)

Visitors at the artist`s studio are photographed in the nest as the artist`s personal and social documentation, a sort of guest book and creative record.
The nest underlines the welcoming, captivating and imaginative qualities particular of the artist`s studio.
It is constructed with organic, recyclable materials that are usually discarded.

Material : paper, branches, hay, cotton, cloth, mud
Date : 2005
Type : installation
Dimension : 200 x 70 cm
Place : Artist's studio, Montreal, Canada

MODULE

Material : bronze
Date : 2009
Dimension : 200 x 138 x 77 cm
Place : Golf Griffon des Sources, Mirabel, Canada

TRAMPOLINO (Diving-board)

Monumental sculpture, commissioned for the new Millenium by the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre. From a trowel, symbol of the faithful tradition of builders in the Italian community in Montreal, a diver thrusts into the new building.

Material : cor-ten steel, stainless steel
Date : 2002
Dimension : 350 x 1100 x 600 cm
Place : Centro Leonardo Da Vinci, Montreal, Canada