Residents of Rome’s Pigneto district (which the daily newspaper La Repubblica calls a “cultural Capitoline”) are currently enjoying an influx of new inhabitants. A number of colorless figures in Degas-esque dancer poses have appeared on light poles, in trees, and on billboards and bridges.
Attributed to an artist named Tommaso, the figures are made of adhesive tape and are molded on real live humans (those of you dying to try this at home should click over to tapesculpture.org for instructions regarding the creation of such figures and/or sign up for a tape casting workshop–details on the tapesculpture.org site).
What inspired Tommaso to decorate Pigneto with these translucent figures? It seems to be an outgrowth of Mark Jenkins’ Storker Project in which tape babies were placed in cities across the world.
Jenkins, an American artist most widely known for the street installations he creates using packing tape, described the Storker Project in this way:
The Storker Project is a species propagation movement by STORKER seeking to incite select individuals from the public at large, perhaps you. If while passing by one you feel strange sensations in your nipples or fingertips, adopt the infant, breast feed, and give it plenty of TLC. It will gradually mature to a full size Tape Man or Woman to co-habitate with you and eventually take you to the Glazed Paradise (or possibly oust you from your home).
Looks like some of those tape babies have grown up and moved to Rome!
