Aurora Sciabarra was born in Palermo, a city split between the beauty of the Mediterranean biome and the many post-1960s concrete-based buildings.

“When I was a child, my family used to take me and my siblings to the countryside, usually on weekends. Those moments were the ones that connected me with what I would call Nature.”

Aurora studied painting in Italy and Fine Art in the UK, where she moved in 2007; since then, her work has been focused on human and non-human dynamics: “reflecting on the impact of our way of living in the environment.” Aurora’s approach to art is philosophical – she is interested in ecosophy.

“My work is based on a research interest in environmental studies and consumer culture. The concepts of need and choice, alongside with the exploitation of natural resources, change, exchange-of-value and conflict, are at the centre of the research which looks at the interaction between human and non-human dynamics and questions to what extent human being’s way of living will affect the earth.
The constant consumption and production of goods, from one hand, and the depletion of natural resources on the other hand, creates a schizophrenic society, where ecological changes occur due to human beings’ insatiable activity of consuming and in doing so they also compromise the natural resources (soil, water, sea, forest etc.) they survive on…..

Given that we live in an era of mass extinction and rapid ecological changes, to reflect on the kind of life one lives appears to be as common as inevitable, as it appears inevitable to question the anthropocentric vision of the world.”

….

The Earth screams

“Since “The beginning of” humans’ presence on Earth, we have capitalised on the planet’s resources for survival. We have developed a system which has generated wealth and impoverishment.
“The Earth screams” and tells human beings about the difficulties its ecosystems are experiencing.
In Nature we are, and Nature we are. Yet, contrary to the myriads of living organisms present on Earth, we, with our practices, can act as disruptors, interrupting and creating problems for the many living things that make the natural world.”

‘Art as a distant early warning system’

“Whatever future beckons, the human mind will also be able to inform, through art, about what will begin to happen that might affect the lives of all.
“I think of art as a distant early warning system,” wrote Marshall McLuhan. Art – as I also understand it – can tell us what is beginning to happen to the Earth’s ecosystems.

The Groundwork Gallery is a Gallery focused on the environment – how art can inform us about the Earth’s state of being- and I believe that being part of the Groundwork NetWork would mean being part of like-minded beings.”

Aurora has shown a beautiful installation of bees at GroundWork Gallery in 2020 as part of the exhibition Bugs, Beauty and Danger