Precious

(installation/sculpture for the exhibition ‘Almost a Virgin’: plastic shopping bags and newspaper, 2021)

In the former USSR there were not any plastic carrier bags, however once in a couple of years or so our aunt Ida sent us a parcel from the Federal Republic of Germany wrapped in a carrier bag or two. These cherished bags came to represent the freedom and abundance of the Capitalist West. They were to be repaired and reused over and over again. 

Here I have gone on a spree of excess with 5000 carrier bags melded together through newspaper and iron heat exactly the way I used to repair them to prolong their life back in the USSR.

Since moving to the Capitalist West I have been having a recurring dream of a large white smooth mass about five times my size pushing against my face and I have to swallow it somehow. The overwhelming decadence of the bags swallows you as you enter the blue shed and close the door behind you.