Italian artist Francesco Ideale Vullo has created The River, a seemingly simple minimalist piece that comes with a heavy call for climate action. The River are two river stones that have seemingly been hung on a steel rod with nothing but plastic cable ties. True to Vullo’s artist’s statement, which outlined a passion to study how the properties of different materials can evoke different sentiments, the river stones in The River, an otherwise sturdy material, have instead been cinched as if to adjust to the cable ties the way a woman’s waist would to a corset.
These rocks, that seem to be choking, strangled by the plastic cable ties, bring to mind images of marine life who have lost their lives strangled by plastic bags. Hence, the river stones in The River can be read as symbols of Planet Earth and all things naturally occurring that are struggling to coexist with plastic pollution and other wastes generated by human activity, as symbolized by the cable ties in the piece.
As single-use plastic and other carbon footprint generators steer the planet into dangerous uninhabitable territories, The River becomes a powerful call to action against climate change. This is why the piece by Francesco Ideale Vullo is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Climate Action and Responsible Consumption and Production.
The fact that Vullo has decided to create a minimalist piece which brings to mind such a heavy topic is indeed commendable. Most protest art, or activism art, tend to have messy aesthetics, which has often been read as a rejection of the clean-cut aesthetics of the global capitalist corporations. Minimalism has instead been recognized as a PR & marketing aesthetics strategy that desires to separate the final product from its dirty and corrupt means of production. Here instead, Vullo has chosen to use minimalism to his advantage, hijacking the aesthetics of the large corporations by creating a piece that they could easily purchase for their office lobbies. In short, Vullo is speaking the enemy’s language and trying to reason with them.
Francesco Ideale Vullo's The River transforms minimalist design into a powerful commentary on the environmental crisis, specifically the impact of plastic pollution. By juxtaposing the strength of natural river stones with the artificial constriction of plastic cable ties, Vullo evokes the suffocating grip of human-generated waste on the Earth and its ecosystems. This striking visual metaphor calls attention to the urgent need for climate action and sustainable practices. Through The River, Vullo invites viewers—especially those in positions of influence—to reconsider their role in the global environmental crisis and the impact of their consumption choices.
Find out more about The River and other pieces by Francesco Ideale Vullo on his website www.francescovullo.com or Instagram @fra_vullo.