Are you thinking, “Hold on – is this BUBBLEGUM?!”… yes, yes it is. These sculptures – from high heels to crocs {the animal, not the shoe} – are the work of Italian artist Maurizio Savini. Here’s a bit of info, found via Fremin Gallery in New York, answering a few questions I’m guessing you might have … 1. Does he chew all of this gum? 2. Um, is bubblegum archival?  3. Why so much pink?:

No.1 : With a process as unique as his aesthetic, Maurizio and his two assistants unwrap then apply heat to thousands of half white, half bright pink bubble gum squares without chewing a single piece, so they can easily be manipulated, cut with a knife, and applied to plaster mold like traditional clay. Maurizio notes, “The mold is crucial” – without it, his tacky sculptures would be far too unstable. After molding the chewing gum into his desired shapes, Maurizio fixes and preserves his sculptures with a mixture of formaldehyde and antibiotics, so his works will be in tact for generations of Romans to come. This labor-intensive process at times calls for nearly 3,000 individual pieces of bubble gum per sculpture.

No. 2: Telling the story of his very first show, Maurizio admits, “The first exhibition I had went really well, there was only one problem which was actually quite funny. The works I sold completely fell apart after three months as the high sugar content in the bubble gum had destroyed the foundation beneath – they were all sent back to the galleries! I had to give the money back, but I had already spent it!” At the age of 44, Maurizio now has nearly fifteen years of experience with the sticky substance, and has appeared in over 100 group and 50 solo exhibitions all over the word

No. 3: Maurizio’s fascination with the ultra pink chromatic began long before his chewy sculptures came to play; to him, “pink represents artificiality – when you see it, you associate it with a fake world.” 

Happy Monday.