Technofossils I – XI

click on image for more details

Different lens-based processes (photography, 3D scanning, and laser engraving) transform the fundamental properties of plastic waste into previously unknown species. These relics of the Plasticine present as 11 laser-engraved black MDF panels (each in a size of 20×26” ). The engraved images are a series of organic, open-ended, and delicate shapes that depict 3D Scans of one plastic piece – a bottle cap from different views. They appear as new vital specimens, but there is also a sense of uncanniness, the interplay between being alive and fading away, between objects and their ghosts – their legacy. The created assemblage might function as a translation of the ultimate, eternal, haunting quality that plastic has. It questions the disposability and abundance of plastic and its waste through uniqueness and singularity, and responds to the idea of plastic as a relic and artifact of the “Plasticine”. The open spaces in the grid reference missing objects in the collection of technofossils.

The panels do not represent perfect objects. Instead, they create curiosity and wonder by defamiliarisation. These scans transformed trash into something different. The hints of clear-cut geometry merge with soft, organic parts, revealing the paradox that plastic is a synthetic material that dissolves into microscopic particles, yet also becomes part of the earth. The engraved objects hover between movement and status, certainty and uncertainty. Only in the regions where the structure breaks down do the prints reveal their synthetic character – the triangles of the wireframe model from the 3D program. These prints represent the unresolved consequences of plastic pollution and plastic as a material, evoking the quality of an antique photograph or negative. Although plastic is a thoroughly artificial compound that we would not understand as living in a traditional sense, it has a cycle and a vibrancy that come from its constant relationship with human and non-human worlds.  To me, this vitality is etched into the surfaces of the found objects and represented through the technique of engraving, resonating with marks and traces left behind on the found plastic objects and – as a relic of deep time.

The created images are like stills of an organic process that most certainly does not follow a predictable line of development, inverting the process of mastering the natural world by creating plastic, which will not degrade in any foreseeable time.