4m clear LDPE sheeting, 4m pink anti-static LDPE sheeting, LDPE bags, HDPE bags, mixed plastic sheeting, mixed fused plastics, plywood, packing tape, polyester thread, misc. plastic and metal hardware, box fans.
30’ 9 ½” x 30’ 9 ½” x 33’ and 33’ 8 ½” x 29’ 7 ½” x 24’ 4”
Two conical inflated structures overtake the space, existing in conversation with one another, one tipped on its side, the other reaching up towards the sun. Both an altar of hope and a room to inhabit, Plastiscapes explores the infinite dichotomies held within plastic that exist at odds with one another: the ancient and futuristic, mundane and magical, intimate and industrial, malleable and fixed. The artists forgo industrial forms of recycling as foraged plastics are pressed, fused, cut, and quilted, bringing disparate materials together into a coherent whole. When activated with air, plastic becomes a landscape for a speculative inquiry, exploring pasts, presents and futures of this storied material that overwhelms and presses down around us.
Presented in Parachute, a solo exhibition by Studio Rat at Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montréal, QC, curated by Erika del Vecchio.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Megan Macrae, Masumi Rodriguez, Iris Bayer, Nik Arthur, and David May for their generous support.