Plastic Arcimboldo

about Freya Jobbins

The italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, from the 1500s, finds a new life in the humanoid busts and portraits by Freya Jobbins who uses a very non-traditional material: discarded children’s toys — with a hint of the Toy Story Trilogy. An artistic exploration, of the relationship between consumerism and the culture of up-cycling and recycling.

“I am interested in generating a range of responses to existing cultural objects, which have been placed out of context. The irony of my plastic works is that I take a material that was created to be touched, and I make it untouchable as an artwork”.

Freya is an Australian based sculptor and printmaker, who currently works from her home studio near Sydney. Majoring in Printmaking during her art studies, she is now predominantly a sculptor but continues to produce prints.

“What keeps me grounded is that I appreciate that I can do what I love every single day. It’s not ‘work’ in that sense. I love creating my artworks, I love searching for materials, I love going to schools and talking about what I do, I love the people that I meet through art. I do what I do because I can’t not do it. So it’s an obsession for me, slightly more than a passion”.

Her printmaking practice is focused on contemporary social commentary through monotone linocuts and woodcuts based on the human experience. Her pieces takes a lot of patience and material — 14 months, as in the case of her commissioned Batman, or hundreds of tiny Barbie and Bratz ears for her Cassiopeia.

Both Freya’s prints and sculptures have been exhibited and held in collections Australia wide, and in England, Norway, Germany, Dubai, New York, San Francisco and Tel-Aviv.