Hipster home and style publications go crazy for Carolina Fontoura Alzaga’s art, which takes the form of elaborate chandeliers constructed of used bike chains, rims, and other parts. The series is called Connect and is a clever tweak to the nose of society — symbols of affluence put together in a post-industrial style with, well, trash.

But Caro, as she’s known, puts it much better herself:

“This series addresses class codes, power dynamics, reclaimed agency, and ecological responsibility. The traditional chandelier is seen as a bourgeois commodity, a cachet of affluence, excess, and as such power. The recycled bicycle parts become a representation of the dismissed, invisible, and powerless, but are also an affirmation of self-propelled movement. The bicycle chandelier thereby creates a new third meaning of reclaimed agency.

“These Subversive objects challenge the aesthetics of wealth by visually contrasting the classic elegance of the candelabrum with the newfound elegance of discarded, mechanical bicycle parts. Also, as objects made from existing materials they challenge the necessity of the new.”

Amen, sister. Anyone who’s ever broken a chain would agree.

See more at www.facaro.com.

Tagged as: daily bike