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Plastic Memory   

1997-2006

This work has been produced using waste plastic. Blister packs, flower wrappings, plastic cups and such were used to create photograms. Photograms are a bit like X rays, they are made by shining light through transparent or semi transparent objects. A photogram of a piece of plastic will pick up fine marks and scratches, traces from the object’s past, that you cannot see with the naked eye. That something can be solid & yet transmit light astonishes me, transparency is a beautiful and seductive way of flaunting the goods.

I like the idea of transforming waste into something of value, the plastic that I use has already undergone many transformations. Before it was plastic it was oil and long before that it was vegetation growing in the hot prehistoric sun of the carboniferous age. Oil will run out in a generation’s time, & when it does our grandchildren will reproach us- ‘All those wonderful complex molecules, and you burnt them!’ (Or buried them in Landfills). This work aims to express ideas and emotions to do with this unnatural and often controversial material.