Sidonie Anderson

I started this project with the intention of venturing outside of my comfort zone and trying a new art form- installation. My original intentions, inspired by the documentary Drowning in Plastic, were to demonstrate how plastic has not only affected large-scale areas of the world, but also our human biology on a molecular level. According to National Geographic, we consume around 50,000 microplastics annually (Gibbens, 2019). My initial idea was to acquire petri-dishes and attempt to grow a type of bacterial culture on a plastic surface, but then decided against this when I realised it could potentially take weeks to see results.

The monoprint workshop was invaluable in terms of my project’s development. I brought along my torn bin bags and used muddy combinations of green, brown, orange and black ink when printing in order to mimic a more natural, organic form. The intricate details in the final result resembled the tiny veins in leaves or the lines on a butterfly’s wing. This theme communicated my original idea of illustrating how plastic has infiltrated almost every species’ microbiome. I also had a plastic biscuit container that I crushed and consequently used to make an embossing, as well as additional prints. I received the comment that the prints resembled a kind of historic artefact, which I found interesting as it was made of a material that epitomises modern manufacturing. I interpreted it as a commentary on how plastic permeates every aspect of life and will become a defining part of history years from now.

In order to fulfil my intention of creating an installation piece, I used torn strings of plastic bag tied together to make a large web to hang from the ceiling. As well as a series of photos of my limbs tangled in the plastic, I took slow-motion videos of it flailing and contorting as it fell through the air. Its ephemeral nature reminded me of Monika Grzymala’s tape installations, which have been described as having ‘new and vibrant, organic and expressive potential, much as a dancer might transform the space through which she moves’ (BERG Contemporary, 2022). I find it interesting how an inorganic material such as tape or polyethylene can transform into such natural forms. I was also reminded of Karla Black’s ‘light, fragile’ (2011) cellophane sculptures.