River of Plastic

“Plastic is, all told, a spectacle to be deciphered: the very spectacle of its end-products […] Plastic is wholly swallowed up in the fact of its being used: ultimately, objects will be invented for the sole pleasure of using them. […] The hierarchy of substances is abolished: a single one replaces them all: the whole world can be plasticized, and even life itself.”
Roland Barthes, Mythologies, 110-111

I use plastic to symbolize both the realities of manufacturing as well as aspects of the global consumerism – the plastic promise of a non-stop river of commodified, disposable happiness. In addition to the more obvious plastic aesthetics, products and disposable attitudes therein, the recent trend to creating new “green spaces” and “historic landmarks” has spurred an almost non-stop race in which the capitalist concerns of the construction industry figure prominently. These environments create an inordinate amount of construction waste, further polluting the environment and the “authenticity” of traditional culture and idolised Nature.

By exotifying the Western Beauty Myth and adopting it as yet another means to encourage consumerism, the “plastic” in my commentary of “plastic lifestyle” grows to include plastic surgery as well as fashion, cosmetics, media (films, music, etc), and actual plastic consumer goods. This River of Plastic, made up of Tyvek cement bags, recycled plastic signs and billboards, manufactured LED lights, etc. will place the viewer into a landscape of marketing, commodification, myth making of objects and debri.