Love Your Bean

Cosimo Cavallaro, Canada

Description

TitleLove Your Bean
Artist: Cosimo Cavallaro (b. 1961, Canada)
Medium: Fibreglass resin
Dimensions (H x W x D):  1.4 x 2.74 x 1.22 metres (4 feet 6 inches x 9 feet x 4 feet) each
Weight: 320 kg (705 lbs) each
Former Location: Charleson Park in Vancouver (for the 2014-2016 Vancouver Biennale exhibition)

Love Your Bean came as a turning point for Cosimo Cavallaro. His earlier artworks were constructed from perishables, such as covering a room with melted cheese in Cheese Room and the use of chocolate as a medium for sculpture in Chocolate Jesus. He also sought beauty in destruction by using pillow cases and bedding as an outlet for his anger (Birth, Pillows). After working in this medium for many years, Cavallaro experienced a sudden shift in perspective: he realized that he had no more anger left to express.

“Love your bean” was a mantra that Cavallaro told himself while he worked on the highly polished fibreglass resin of Love Your Bean. To him, it meant “not to give up.” The inspiration came from a deeper focus on the nature of love, shape and colour. According to Cavallaro, the bean is the truest shape to create, a shape that occurs naturally through process. Unlike a perfect circle that can be traced, a bean is an organic shape, one that cannot be easily duplicated and one that changes with each person that creates it. The whimsical and childish characteristic that Love Your Bean presents is increased with the bold and joyful presentation of colours. Upon reflecting on his earlier works, Cavallaro considers that it is fairly easy to demolish existing materials in pursuit of beauty, but it is much more “difficult to build the beauty that you search for in life.”

“The sculptures in Love Your Bean break the boundaries that exist between objects and humans. They compel one to touch them, crossing borders when you allow yourself to be led by your senses. Love Your Bean is a simple shape that is easily understood as a womb, a place of comfort where one seeks solace. Open borders is an acceptance of one’s self, allowing yourself to exist without judgement.” – Cosimo Cavallaro

“… the pop conceit of [Love Your Bean] deliberately super-sweet connotation allows them to transcend both their medium and the pop culture box, rising into whichever cortex of our brain houses the perfect combination of oral and visual desire. It’s enough to make your mouth, if not your eyes, water.” – MS, ArtScene

PBS Documentary on Love Your Bean

While Love Your Bean has been removed from its original site in Charleson Park, the Vancouver Biennale is seeking funding opportunities to ensure that these sculptures return to the public to be enjoyed as a Legacy Artwork.

 

Press Coverage

CBC Radio

The Vancouver Sun

Georgia Straight – Top 10 Standout Art Events of 2014

Vancouver Is Awesome

Where

Forecast Public Art Review

The False Creek News

Vancity Buzz