This post was published @ Domestik Goddess.
A lot of things are being said about China’s recent announcement to ban the manufacture, sale, and use of plastic bags under 0.025 mm thick and prohibits supermarkets and shops nationwide from handing out the sacks for free from June 1st AND apparently, Australia’s government also said recently that it hoped to phase out the use of plastic bags from the nation’s shopping centres by the end of the year.
With all the hoo-haas around the excessive use of plastic bags, it is heartening to learn that there are people who turn these plastic bags into beautiful art pieces!
Virginia Fleck began making artwork when she was a child and she eventually studied at Portland School of Art and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and residencies including a fellowship for a residency and exhibition in Havana, Cuba.
My wall-sized mandalas, created from sections of used plastic shopping bags, analyze the activity of consumerism as a spiritual encounter. This visual experience of repetitive designs, indicative of meditative objects and advertising graphics, stimulates the viewer to yearn for more… Our hunger is insatiable; our fervor can be witnessed… Nirvana / paradise is easily obtained and owned…
Her work has been exhibited at Art Forum Berlin, Pulse Miami, Pulse New York, and Arte Fiera in Bologna, Italy. And she recently completed The Spin Cycle for Whole Foods World Headquarters and Mandala Constellation for the Dell Children’s Hospital. Her work appears in many prestigious collections including the Marino Golinelli collection in Bologna, Italy. In 2007, she was nominated for the Texas Prize, and won the juror’s award for the 2007 Texas Biennial.
Aren’t they beautiful? 
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what? no plastic bags in Australia? then I’ll have to buy plastic rubbish bags for my rubbish, what a waste of money & still pollutes the environments!
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Well, the art’s great - shows the variety of materials through which you can make art.
However, while I’m all for plastic bag bans - there are so many other pollutants we need to tackle. I believe our dependence on fossil fuel should be the number one issue on the agenda. If we can solve this, we’d take away a lot of negatives from our environment !
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Great artwork and fantastic use of those silly plastic bags
Here in California, or Los Angeles County at least, there is a movement going on to get rid of those bags. I think it’s a wonderful idea. I don’t know why they ever replaced paper in the first place. I liked those paper bags.
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why not buy cloth bags and reuse? plastic is one of the worst polluters on the planet- to make and to land fill. it doesn’t break down over time. water and juice bottles and all of those frozen dinners and whatnot- all come in plastic or styrofoam- which we need to not buy. there are renewable alternatives- glass and paper are much better options. one could just go back to last month’s ’save the ocean’ writing project- there is a huge floating mass of plastic garbage in the ocean- almost the size of a continent. buy reusable and renewable.
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Wow, this artwork is beautiful! I love to use recycled material myself and it’s a great way to express oneself… Andy Warhol style I guess!
I had never seen plastic as some art material before, I guess I should look at my bags with a different eye!
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I heard about the plastic bag phase out in Oz supermarkets too. I’m all for it, except… how do I throw my yuckies cleanly leh? hmmm…
that certainly is a beautiful piece of recycled art!
Wow, nice piece of recycled art!
This clearly shows that the recycling effort can be implemented in a much more creative way
Too bad I can’t see any of these here in KL…well, yet.
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The hard part is getting stores to use the cloth bags that you bring from home. They act like they do not care
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I like it
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Nice artworks . little will you know they are plastics
Please, if i may ask, is there anyway one can get to get an acess to those artworks. I think i will b interested in discussing business please.
Ni hao “Queenie” …*-)
Michael here from Germany.
Thanks for this post, making me realize the beauty potential of plastic in art
Regards,
Michael
edunwa, perhaps you can contact Virginia from her website?