Chiara Corbelletto

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Hybrid Encounter 1, 2020
Polypropylene: white 5 mm, grey and blue 1.9mm
1650 x 1520 x 1200mm

Hybrid Encounter 2, 2020
Polypropylene, white 5mm
1100 x 1150 x 1100mm

Hybrid Encounter 3, 2020
Polypropylene: white 5mm, grey 1.9mm
970 x 650 x 650mm

Rosette, 2020
Polypropylene, blue and grey 1.9mm
500 x 500 x  1200mm

Configuration 1, 2020
Polypropylene, blue and grey 1.9mm
520 x 520 x 280mm

Configuration 2, 2020
Polypropylene, blue and grey 1.9mm

Hybrid Encounters 2020 is situated in a unique part of the trail - an ecosystem of swamp cypresses and waterlilies. Hybrid Encounters 2020 presents eight configurations of different sizes and shapes that are suspended from and attached to the branches and trunks of the swamp cypresses and large Blackwoods at the water's edge. 

 Corbelletto’s installation is transformed by this particular luscious environment and it is as if there is a new species that has evolved in the forest. The sculptural nets share structural similarities with the organic structures of types of fungi which grow nearby. 

 Corbelletto generates these sculptures with the same single component replicated and assembled to form different aggregations. It is a language from simplicity to complexity that echoes the process employed by nature to generate an infinite number of variations.

Hybrid Encounters suggests an ambiguous yet at the same time strangely connected relationship with the natural environment. These works are part of an extensive project called Coherent Permutations which focus on the evolution of a single form into a system of interrelated configurations. These can appear at once both highly symmetric and yet biomorphic and free-form. Corbelletto’s work has an abstracted futuristic style which she uses to explore philosophical, scientific and artistic notions.

“Overall the project reflects on how complexity can arise from simplicity, how diversity evolves from singularity and how small modifications can create evolutionary adaptations.” 

This is the second iteration of Chiara Corbelletto’s Hybrid Encounters installation. The first was commissioned for SCAPE Public Art Season 2019 and hung in the glass Cuningham House conservatory in the Botanic Gardens Christchurch. 

Hybrid Encounters was nominated by the Italian Embassy to represent New Zealand in Giornata del Contemporaneo – Contemporary Art Day 2020. This initiative is in its 15th year and is hosted by the Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums (AMACI).

Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters
Hybrid Encounters

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Artist Bio

“Chiara Corbelletto is a prominent Italian New Zealand sculptor. Her work has an abstracted futuristic style, exploring philosophic and scientific concepts of space.” Anna-Marie White, curator of An Ocean of Silence, 2011.

Chiara Corbelletto has an established career with an extensive record of exhibitions, sculptural installations; art integrated in architecture and public art commissions. Born in Biella, Italy, she graduated from Modigliani Art School in Novara and subsequently gained a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Milan.

Corbelletto has been the recipient of numerous public commissions, including the Golden Jubilee Commission for Massey University, Palmerston North (2014), the art integrated façade for the Te Atatu Library & Community Center, Auckland Council (2014), a public sculpture for the Auckland Domain (2005), a public sculpture for the University of Auckland (2003), a permanent installation for the Auckland University of Technology (2001).

In 2011 the Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi O Whakatu, Nelson, presented An Ocean of Silence, a ten-year retrospective of Corbelletto’s career. Her bronze sculpture, Numbers are the Language of Nature, Auckland Domain, was included in the international publication 500 X Art in Public, Braun Publishing, Germany.

Corbelletto’s work is held in significant public and corporate collections including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, Waikato Museum, The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatu, The Dowse Art Museum, Massey University, Auckland City Public Art, Edmiston Trust, University of Auckland, James Wallace Arts Trust, Westpac Trust, NZI-IAG, National Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Chiara Corbelletto’s work is described as poetical and compelling, a distinctive exploration of philosophic, scientific and artistic notions.