PROTOPLASTIC

Tops Gallery

Memphis, USA

2014

Protoplastic stages a public encounter between renewable and non-renewable resources, high and low technologies, as well as between permanence and disposability. The solo exhibition consists of a sculptural installation cast from biodegradable plastic and the acrylic formwork that was used to construct it. By foregrounding materials, the project  prompts questions about consumption, waste, and as the broader ecologies within which design production is situated. What would it mean, for example, to assume permanent ownership of every piece of petro-plastic that we consume rather than releasing it for disposal? How might we continue to reposition the issue of waste as a part of the design process? What if food supply and construction industries were integrated into an interdependent system? 

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Project assistant: Taylor McNally-Anderson