Paper sculptures are only one aspect of Andrea Mastrovito’s work but evenwhen working in film and video, performance or photography, paper is oftena central device. He uses paper because of its simplicity and directness. Hesays “I want to show how things are born and are filtered through my work.” He leaves no personal trace and says “I like to hide my intervention. … I make clean but totally impersonal cuts.”
Mastrovito has produced a series of sculptures inspired by the natural worldusing many varieties of flowers or species of animals...This impressive floor installation is a garden full offoliage and flowers, cut from seed and plant catalogues, which are pushedupright. The work plays with the notion of reality and artifice. The imagerycomprises photographic reproductions of actual blossoms which make youwant to bend down and smell them, despite seeing the catalogues from whichthey are taken, overlaid on the floor. Mastrovito describes the cyclical natureof this work. “In the beginning you've got a flower. From the flower comes atree. From the tree we obtain wood, from wood paper and from paper books.And in the end, with just few cuttings, I've gone back to the original flower.”
Natasha Howes on "The First Cut - paper at the cutting edge" catalogue, 2012