I notice plastic bags. I see them on roadsides and trapped in trees and I wonder if it isn't better that they've been snatched up by those branches to slowly deteriorate in the wind and rain. The internet is full of contradictory information about how long it takes for these artifacts of our consumption to actually degrade.
I photograph bags in trees a lot. I once showed these photos in a basement gallery my friends were calling "The Church of Light, Sound and Touch." We sewed some tote bags for our friends who came to the opening. I had never used a sewing machine until that day so I think we made some bad bags, but it was fun.
I wondered how other artists have explored the impact of plastic bags on our environment and came across this project by Tomas Saraceno. He's one of my favorite artists, so I was pretty happy to discover this new-ish work. Composed of hundreds of used shopping bags pasted together by people in the communities this hot air balloon travels to, this museum as they call it, is meant to help people reimagine the potential of our discarded objects and reconsider the gravity of our consumption. To see more, visit: http://tomassaraceno.com
Image is copyright Tomas Saraceno