I am currently working on a community art installation in a local shopping mall together with Noa Mer, with whom I collaborated on The Tent art installation, making this our second project together. The entire installation is made of used plastic bags.
There are three main objectives behind this project:
1. To raise awareness to the amount of plastic bags we use, offering an alternative multi-use shopping bags to everyone participating in the installation.
2. To offer the alternative experience of making in an environment that is all about consuming.
3. To make something beautiful out of waste.
It took a while to convince the ‘mall’ to have an ongoing project in their premises, since by its very essence the process of making this art installation contradicts everything a shopping center represents:
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Shopping malls are all about immediate gratifications while we offer an art installation that is an ongoing process of 2 months work.
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The people taking part in the making of this installation don't take their work home but have to depart from their ‘beads’ for the benefit of the project. They go home with the knowledge of this new technique and with the feeling that they have contributed to something bigger.
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The end result is unknown. At the beginning of the process we offered a sketch that we hoped to achieve, but like any community art installation the public participating greatly affects the final outcome..
Moving forward with this project shows great vision on the part of the mall. The mall sees itself as such that can influence and change our everyday habits, by raising awareness to our excessive use of plastic bags, taking upon itself a part in the local community and in trying to bring about a positive change.
A little about the technique:
We have developed a method of sculpting with plastic bags which is very simple. We used this method to make ‘beads’ that are stranded together into necklaces that forms an installation that looks somewhat like a pendant necklace.
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Stuff plastic bags into one another,
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Squeeze all the air out to make a tight and firm ball (great for taking all aggressions out) . Make a knot at the end.
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Connect a few balls using a bigger bag, forming what may look like a caterpillar.
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Connect a few caterpillars with an overlapping plastic bag.
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Decorate the strands with ribbons cut out of plastic bags.
And that is it. (almost)
here is a LINK to lots of process pictures. Don't have final pics yet, since we have 2 more weeks to the end of the project. I will post them as soon as we are done.
please say no to plastic bags
tali
