Life in Plastic… It’s (far from) Fantastic!

Whether you’d boast of ‘Best Out of Waste’ childhood title-holder or not, it would be unfair to feign alarm at the rapid rise in single-use plastic consumption in The Information Age we belong to. As doe-eyed wishful thinkers of yore, we’ve all been guilty of excitedly equating popular DIYs with single handedly saving the planet, one proud Refash’d artwork at a time. The mass ignorance of ‘Reduce’ in the ingrained holy trinity though, has led to yet another cause to rally around.

When art derives from life, with the picture a gory commentary on society’s excesses, it’s time we took note of the message behind such hauntingly beautiful work. A visual communication that was born of a pained planet and an unceasing species.

Join us this #PlasticFreeJuly as we navigate impactful, soul-stirring art from around the globe.

Khalil Chishtee

A blend of reality and fiction, his work depicts a contrast between the physical world and the world within modelling plastic bags with ease and grace.

Khalil Chishtee

 

Manveer Singh 

Man on a mission, Delhi-based artist turned 250kg of plastic waste into incredible landscapes. The revelation of farmers uncovering layers of plastic in place of water while digging wells left him with a desire to use his art purposefully.

Manveer Singh

 

Arun Kumar HG

Not an environmentalist, simply a student of the environment, Arun Kumar believes it to be of utmost importance to have knowledge about what we live in the midst of. He emphasises scale visually as a reflection on the speed and impact of our consumption.

Arun Kumar

Veronika Richterova

Coined PET-art, what was a chance discovery in 2004, turned into a full-time obsession for the Czech artist. She also writes about the usage and history of these plastic bottles globally.

veronika richterova

Tim Noble and Sue Webster

Working with shadowplay, the duo often use trash as a medium to project beautifully detailed silhouettes onto a surface, treating the material only as a means to an end.

tim noble and sue webster

Sayaka Ganz

Capturing tough subjects like motion through plastic ‘objects discarded before their time’ is no easy feat. Sayaka creates colourful masterpieces with great attention to detail applying the Japanese philosophy of Shinto, that all objects are believed to have a soul. 

sayaka ganz
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Feature Credit: Simran Khera

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