India Lister

At the beginning of the plastics project, I began to look into the hypocrisy within artists work when using plastics. Acrylic paints, waste from lino cuts, even within fibers of synthetic brushes. This kind of plastic waste intrigued me as a vast majority of modern artists would be quick to create work speaking against this problem, yet unknowingly support the production of plastics. Researching into this further made me stumble upon Raymond Pettibon, specifically his piece entitled ‘Plastic Pollution Coalition’ was produced and sold to raise money for an initiative of the same name. A global alliance working with leaders in seventy-five countries – striving for a plastics-free future. My interest peaked when I noticed Pettibons’ art appears to be painted with acrylic. I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition as acrylic is a raw form of plastic.

Whilst researching the artist, I came across Dr Max Liboiron. He makes snow globes to represent the amount of plastic waste in the Hudson rivers’ waterfront in New York City. I find this snow globes to be a beautiful mix of not only found materials, but photography that emphasises the beauty in creating something from the plastic crisis. Whilst Studying Liboirons’ art, I discovered he is the founder of ‘CLEAR’ an ‘interdisciplinary plastic pollution laboratory’, which has influenced Canadian policy on plastic waste. His interdependency and dedication to the cause, influenced me to take a similar direction in my own artwork.

For my research path, I gathered milk cartons made from tetra paks, which has a thin layer of plastic on the inside of the carton. I scored a fish pattern into the carton, with the intention of creating an etching plate for printing and peeled areas of the plastic off the fish to create much darker areas of interest. During the process I made the realisation that the carton and ‘printing block’ itself is much more attractive as a final outcome and resolution for the brief. I intend on photographing my response and adding typography with statistics to refine piece and turn the finished product into a campaign advert rather than a fine art piece of work.