Bordalo II’s EVILUTION: First Neon Trash Animals Light Up Lisbon, 2022
Portuguese artist Bordalo II returned to Lisbon with EVILUTION, his largest solo exhibitionand an ambitious exploration of how his art had developed over the previous decade. Taking over the Edu Hub complex Lisbon, the exhibition brings together new works created from discarded materials, expanding the familiar language of his Trash Animals through neon, wood, spray cans and increasingly experimental forms.
Running from 8 October to 11 December 2022, EVILUTION is Bordalo II’s first public solo exhibition in Lisbon for five years and offered a retrospective view of his practice through newly created work.
Bordalo II’s EVILUTION?
The title EVILUTION brings together ideas of evolution and destruction, reflecting Bordalo II’s concern with technological and material progress alongside the environmental consequences of excessive consumption.
“EVILUTION is a kind of retrospective of everything I’ve been doing over the last ten years, and also a way of looking towards the future. I don’t want to become a one-trick pony; I want to evolve and let my work evolve with me.” Bordalo II
Throughout the exhibition, discarded objects remained central. Plastics, toys, ropes, hoses, industrial components and marine debris were transformed into animals, while new materials pushed the artist’s familiar visual language into unexpected territory.
From Big Trash Animals to Small Trash Animals
Alongside the monumental environmental sculpture for which Bordalo II had become internationally recognised, EVILUTION presented Small Trash Animals, bringing the construction techniques of his Big Trash Animals into a more intimate scale.
The smaller works retained the extraordinary density of his outdoor sculptures, combining discarded toys, metals, plastics, textiles, hoses and other fragments of everyday consumption into intricately constructed portraits of wildlife.
For a closer look at how that visual language developed, GraffitiStreet’s Evolution of Bordalo II’s Big Trash Animals traces the relationship between his Neutral, Half-Half and Plastic approaches.
Bordalo II’s First Neon Trash Animals
One of the most significant developments in EVILUTION is Bordalo II’s first major exploration of neon. Discarded neon tubes were incorporated into luminous animal sculptures including a fox, spider and other creatures, allowing materials that had themselves become obsolete waste to illuminate a new generation of Trash Animals.
“It’s unbelievable what people throw away. Many of our sculptures use obvious household trash, but we want to show that there’s a whole ecosystem of junk lying around out there that is threatening nature. That includes things like generations of broken neon tubes, which most people wouldn’t ever think about.” Bordalo II
The effect altered the atmosphere of Bordalo II’s sculpture dramatically. Waste that had previously relied on paint, colour and physical texture could now emit its own light, giving the animals an electric presence while expanding the range of discarded materials his practice could absorb.
Bordalo II EVILUTION: A Decade of Material Experimentation
EVILUTION pushes beyond the materials traditionally associated with the Trash Animals. Empty spray-paint cans were assembled into mosaic-like surfaces, including a striking raccoon, while wood offcuts, industrial components and other salvaged materials opened new possibilities for texture and construction.
This experimentation was central to the exhibition. Bordalo II is demonstrating that the idea behind his practice could evolve without losing its environmental foundation: the material society rejects becomes the material through which its environmental consequences are revealed.
Bordalo II EVILUTION marked an important transition from the familiar language of the Big Trash Animals towards neon, smaller-scale sculpture, mosaics and new forms of salvaged material.
Bordalo II’s Graffiti Roots
The exhibition also looks back towards Bordalo II’s beginnings in graffiti and Portuguese street culture, connecting the sophisticated sculptural language of EVILUTION with the urban environment from which his practice emerged.
That history matters because Bordalo II’s relationship with discarded materials, walls and public space developed alongside graffiti rather than separately from it. GraffitiStreet’s 2015 interview with Bordalo II captures the artist discussing public expression, social responsibility and the critical role of street art at an earlier stage in his career.
From ATTERO to EVILUTION
EVILUTION continued an exhibition history that included Bordalo II’s major Lisbon exhibition ATTERO in 2017. Five years later, the scale and material range of EVILUTION showed how far his vocabulary had expanded, from monumental Trash Animals towards smaller works, mosaics, experimental assemblage and illuminated sculpture.
Looking beyond 2022, this willingness to explore unfamiliar materials continued through projects such as Bordalo II’s Rock Owl, where stone introduced another material language into his public practice.
GraffitiStreet’s wider Bordalo II overview places ATTERO, EVILUTION, the Big Trash Animals and his socially critical Provoc interventions within the broader evolution of his work.
Discover Bordalo II at GraffitiStreet
Discover available Bordalo II artworks at GraffitiStreet, contact us to discuss availability, acquisitions and private viewings, or visit GraffitiStreet Gallery, 25A West Street, Chichester, West Sussex, England PO19 1QW.