Looking at Alexandre Paiva’s two-tone works of art, it’s hard at first to tell what you’re looking at. No, it’s not radioactive macaroni art done on black paper. Rather, those glowing neon segments are actually stitching lines embroidered on photo paper."I embroider on paper just for the simple desire to break standards," says Paiva about the method. The concept here is the use of photo paper, which has its own texture, history, and brightness—attributes that helps to create a unique visual effect.
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Paiva expands on this idea saying, "The embroidery series on photo paper was developed based on images taken from various sources and altered. The selection of these images is always very personal. In veiled paper, the photography is disclosed thought embroidery, slowing down it’s natural process and taking the time that I consider necessary for its development."
City lights II (2011) Embroidery on photo paper 25,5 × 35,5 cmSuper 8 Series (2011) Embroidery on photo paper Diptych 25,5 × 25,5 cmSnapshots Series (2010) Embroidery on photo paper Polyptych 15 × 19 cmLeicester Square, Snapshots Series (2011) Embroidery on photo paper 15 × 19 cmPaiva also creates pieces using flexible electroluminescent cables, and recently merged this technique with the stitching one descried above. "I decided to embroider a canvas with electroluminescent wire," he says.Inspired by the work of Jaspers Johns, Andy Warhol, Lucio Fontana, and Bruce Nauman, Para Não Acertar o Pé (Not To Hit The Foot) is a set of concentric cycles. As Paiva describes it, "It’s used here to represent the diverse steps of the creative process. The title, Not To Hit The Foot, is intentionally ironic by making an allusion to the fear that we all have about not reaching expected results."Not To Hit The Foot (2012) Electroluminescent cables on canvas 140 × 140 cmTwo of a kind (2011) Electroluminescent cables Díptico, 50 × 40 cmClouded (2011) Variable dimensions NeonDee (2011) 65 x65 cm Neon@CreatorsProject
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