Artist Creates Celebrity Portraits with Thousands of Suspended Buttons

Artist Augusto Esquivel is an expert at transforming mundane objects into spectacular works of art. One of his specialties is working with standard sewing buttons, which he uses to create stunning, larger-than-life celebrity portraits.

Augusto’s technique is as tedious as you’d imagine – it’s not an easy arranging thousands of buttons to form an easily recognisable pattern. To create a single portrait, he starts off by suspending hundreds of monofilament strings from the ceiling. Then, he threads black, white and grey buttons into those strings in a particular order.

Individually, these strings might not amount to much. But this is where Augusto works his magic – when he brings the strings together, pixelated images of popular icons emerge. Some of his most notable works include button portraits of stars like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dali and James Dean.

“Like an atom in a molecule, each button serves and shapes the whole,” he explained. “I hold the button to my ear and it whispers to me: ‘I want to be…’”

What makes Augusto so special is his ability to spot the creative potential hidden in everyday objects. “I realise how insignificant and small a simple sewing button can be as it lays in my grandmother’s sewing box,” he said. “But at the same time, how unique and precious it can become as a part of a work of art.”