(born in Rio de Janeiro in 1969; lives and works in London)
Can I live, 2004, found skateboards, mixed media, 112 x 124 x 134 cm, (PP)

Provenance:
Vilma Gold, London
from an European Collection

London-based, Brazilian-born artist Alexandre da Cunha is known for his use of everyday materials both small (plunger heads, sun hats and kitchen utensils) and large (ironing boards, industrial steel staircases, and cement benches), da Cunha synthesizes these everyday elements into objects that avoid identification and allude to structures and forms from art history. […] da Cunha’s material choice echoes his own practice. As cement is infinitely malleable, so is da Cunha’s approach to everyday objects– skateboards, deck chairs, and cement mixers are all seen as equitable building blocks for his sculptures.”
(Text: CRG Gallery)

What is important to note, though, and this also relates to the idea of cannibalization, is that everything we take in is digested in a very specifically Brazilian way. I am altering most of the objects I use, so they are not readymades in the classic Duchampian sense. They are for the most part fairly universal, but they also carry the specific context of where they come from—a particular aesthetics and history.
– Alexandre da Cunha in conversation with Jens Hoffman, CCA Wattis