“One word: Plastics!” The line from The Graduate was prescient in predicting the way the substance would become ubiquitous in our lives, to the point that we have become almost unconscious of it. But plastic has had a huge effect on the environment and the quality of our lives—even psychologically, if “the medium is the message” and the tools we use to communicate are, to great degree, constructed from it.
Date: Apr 6, 2012
Time: All Day
Phone: 801-484-7651
Address: 1840 S. 1300 East, Salt Lake City, 84105
Where: Westminster College
The Plastic Propaganda Poster Project, organized by Laura Sharp Wilson, looks at the subject with posters from artists all over the world. Posters are often thought of as a temporary medium, so it’s an interesting vehicle. But posters are also “plastic” in the sense of being pliable, as the title implies, able to propagate a message.
Some of the posters incorporate plastic in the work itself, like Justin Nowak’s “Survival of the Fittest” (pictured), in which a plastic bag shaped like a shark is about to devour smaller fish. “Plastic Inside & Out” by Alexa Leifson looks at the fashion industry’s fascination with “plastic people,” and Pok Chi Lau’s “Tree Farm, Zibo Shandong, China” simply offers a photograph of a field littered with plastic bags as a statement needing no words.
At the March 27 opening, the documentary film on the subject,Bagit, was shown. The project is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department of Westminster College, and the show is visible at various locations throughout the campus. (Brian Staker)
The Plastic Propaganda Poster Project @ Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East, 360-349-6973, through April 18, free. ThePlasticPropagandaPosterProject. blogspot.com
Date: Apr 6, 2012
Time: All Day
Phone: 801-484-7651
Address: 1840 S. 1300 East, Salt Lake City, 84105
Where: Westminster College
