Noemi Martinelli: buttons become art, a symbol of emptiness and freedom

“I thought – says the artist – about the function of the button and how significant it is to open and close, button or unbutton, the interpretations are endless”. From here, the artist underlines that, in his vision, “the large works represent closure with cold colors”. The women he portrays in this sense have “tipped hair”. The idea of ​​openness, however, is represented by “warm colors and free hair”. But there is also an “intermediate interpretation, my favourite: the buttons here are intertwined with the subjects’ hair, as a representation of opening and closing. In the smaller works – explains the artist – instead I tried to make the message of the button even more concrete as a symbol of emptiness and freedom (the work with warm colours) or as a tool to cover oneself from shame (the work with cold colours)”.

In addition to the main works, she says, “I also create themed bracelets. I love using buttons as accessories” giving life to “bracelets made of free buttons that lose their ‘function’ to become art, just like in these works. Not everything has to have a function, not everything is created to be useful. Seeing these buttons stuck on clothing and lost among the fabric, or forgotten in some drawer, made me think that they deserved to be art”.