Paola Pivi (b. 1971 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian multi-media artist who lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. In her work, she uses a wide range of art techniques, such as photography, sculpture and performance. Some of her works contain performance elements, at times involving live animals and people. In 1999, she received a Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale.

All of the above are featured in her installation “You Started It…I Finish It” Pivi’s set of 8 life-size sculptures of polar bears adorned with psychedelic coloured plumage. Their carefully modeled figures each have distinct personalities and body language. Together, they create an enigmatic scene of Baroque excess and surreal desire recalling fables and fairy tales, dreams and allegories in which unexpected forms become strangely familiar and the pleasure principle prevails.

• As with much of her work, this set also invokes an animistic spiritual wonder and deep concern about the vulnerability of the natural world.

A little something for you to ‘bear in mind.’

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