Drawing from her personal experience as a migrant, Elena Shuppo’s practice investigates notions of home through the lenses of metropolitan landscapes and the human body. Referring the historically male-dominated languages of Minimalism and Brutalist architecture, her practice centres around urban topography and memorialises the fragmented geographies we internalize to construct a sense of home within ourselves.
Starting with utilitarian packing materials, Shuppo’s process is guided by the idea that ‘the material is the material’. Inspired by the bird’s eye perspective technological advancements now offer us - from airplanes to google maps - her wall sculptures re-imagine the cityscape. Rescaled to hang in direct relation to the viewers’ body, these works blur the boundaries between exterior and interior, public and private. Shuppo’s simple geometric forms challenge traditional value systems by transforming inexpensive materials with a coat of paint or a layer of sourced leather scraps, embracing manufactured found materials while celebrating the artist’s manual interventions.