Livia Marin

Broken Things

Order and Similarity II
(~8,000 plastic seals from bottles)

Untitled (unhomely)
(rubber nipples)

"Fictions of a Use I"
(lipstick)
(all images from hompages.gold.ac.uk)

I think the title of Livia Marin's more recent exhibitions is perfectly fitting for her work as a whole: "Manuf®actured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects." What I like about Marin's artwork versus other transformation artists is that she definitely has a woman's touch, using things like lipstick, rubber nipples and pretty ceramic pieces. All of her work is clean, and very well crafted. She's from Chile, which I found interesting as she never makes any insinuation of race. Her work could be understood across many languages. She often uses consumer goods in her work, perhaps making a comment on humans and their relationship to material goods. I read an interview on itsnicethat.com and she says that she both uses objects that she's found and objects she's created, in reference to the "Broken Things" exhibit. She created some ceramic pieces, found some ceramic pieces, used old design patterns, and created new design patterns. It's impressive how cohesive and well-crafted it is, for being a jumble of original/used elements.