‘Provocative Plastics’ & Mariele Neudecker exhibition

‘Provocative Plastics’ Conference, Museum of Design in Plastics, Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), 17/18 September

‘Plastics Vanitas’, exhibition by Mariele Neudecker, The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth, open till 29th September.

Today marks the start of a two day conference ‘Provocative Plastics’ exploring how the design and nature of plastics affects our world. Speakers include the inspiring Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX, environmental Design award who highlighted a 3D designer who produces medical supplies in refugee camps and a young designer who has created a way of cleaning up the plastic in our oceans. Artist and writer Joanne Lee’s talk ‘plastic bags – witches knickers’, explored artist photographs and films exposing the aesthetics and problems of the plastic bag. For example plastic bags caught up in trees. The conference is part of a wider project with the Plastic Vanitas exhibition.

‘Plastic Vanitas’ Mariele Neudecker

Mariele Neudecker, who has been working with Invisible Dust for a number of years creating her Arctic and deep sea artworks, has been commissioned by the Museum of Design in Plastics to create new works for their gallery. She has created ‘Plastic Vanitas’ a series of vivid photographs depicting the Museum of Design in plastics collection.

Her photographs echo the Vanitas still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th. Vanitas artists specifically laid out fruit, flowers and skulls together with other objects  to explore ideas around temporality. Mariele Neudecker photographed the contents of a large number of boxes of objects in Museum’s collection. Including artefacts made from horn, a natural plastic. Each photograph she took shows the contents of one box and is product of up to 90 shots where she adjusted composition of the objects and lighting to get the final photograph. In composing her photographs in this way she raises questions of our perception of plastic, its role in creating a future sustainable world and the history of our objects.

Invisible Dust Director Alice Sharp has contributed an essay, ‘Ars Longa Vita Brevis? Art is long, Life is short?’ for the exhibition catalogue.

Exhibition dates

The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth – 10th September – 29th October 2015

The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts, 15 January – 27 May 2016

Corsham Court, Bath Spa University, 1 May – 31 July 2016

Poole Lighthouse, 29 October – 26 November 2016

Museum of Design in Plastics info.