Plastic fantastic is a concept I have been working on for some years. I got the idea after I saw the news about the environmental issue the plastic has created. The quote that gave me the inspiration was: “Every bit of plastic ever made exists somewhere”. That is also my work title for the project. The world won’t get rid of the plastic for a long time and good enough replacements does not exist. The plastic is everywhere.

Just around where I sit in my studio it looks like: I write with a well-formed and beautiful Apple mouse in hard plastic. On my table there are many plastic bottles with acrylic paint. In a plastic box lies the brushes. In the shelf there are various plastic bottles, cans with a plastic lid, a stack of CDs in plastic covers, tapes, tools with plastic handles and rulers. A roll of bubble wrap and two buckets are on the floor and at the door is it a stack of Styrofoam.

WHAT CAN AN ART PROJECT DO?

The motivation and challenge are to create a positive, beautiful exhibition with plastic involved. An ambiguous tribute to the plastic, a nice façade with pictures from our time, but also with a warning. I am the adversary of art where one must read up to capture what is told. It means that the expression must be clear enough to cause people to react, and my ambition is that my spectators at best start to take control of their plastic after watching the exhibit. An everlasting reminder would be great.

Read more about the context at the bottom of the page.

 

Context

Plastic came as a major innovation already back in 1908. It is a 100% synthetic material that appeared in a Norwegian trade for the first time in 1929 in terms of sockets made by Bakkelitt. “Plastic” comes of Greek “Plastikos” and means configurable. The synthetic material could be mixed with other substances as needed in numerous varieties.

Plastic has some great advantages; It is cheap to produce, has extremely long durability, is light in weight and can be varied for ages. Form 1950, the plastic production increased sharply both in Norway and in the rest of the world; From 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to more than 300 million tonnes in 2016.

A lot of use-and-throw products were made. Because it was cheap to produce a lot was made for one-time use. No one thought of the waste problem before it was too late.

The success also brings cons. After about 86 years of gigantic production is the mountain of plastic garbage even more gigantic. There are now “islands” bigger than Norway of rubbish in the Pacific Ocean where 80% of it are plastic. Plastic is depleted very slowly; for example, a fishing line uses unfathomable 600 years, plastic bottles use “only” 450 years, but unfortunately, they are not completely decomposed. They leave microplastics. As well as a wide range of other common plastic products, such as synthetic textiles and makeup. Microplastics are almost invisible because the pieces are so small, but they are secreted on a large scale from artificial turf, cosmetics and fleece. A lot of it can actually end up in our food!

Some of the images shown here are done. Some of them are almost finished and the photographs are currently only an idea and for inspiration. This page will be updated when more pictures are done or changed. New ones will also be added.

Please contact me if you are interested in knowing more!