Our planet is drowning in waste. Worldwide, we dump 3.5 million tonnes every day. So I cut waste. I crunched it, punched it and squeezed it. And then I speared it.
Perhaps you too have occasionally been struck by the odd flora and fauna of modern consumer goods. I have documented such products for quite some time under #supermarketgems on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Also under #mynature, I keep posting images of that which we call »nature« – between human perception and production. There are occasional overlaps there.
On one hand, I am fascinated by the diversity of innovation and design in ever newer products. On the other, I am painfully aware of the environmental aspects.
In navigating this fine line, I began to make recyclables blossom.
Bottles, cans, cups, caps, tubes, nets and the like, bought and consumed by me, or picked up during walks, thoroughly cleaned and disinfected: all components of my exquisite garbage collection are officially meant to be recycled.
I turned them into two series of flowers; this one with delicate black stems – from parts of a decorative item that I found, the other one with strong silver stems – from parts of the classic wire coat hangers, as you would find at the dry cleaners.
It is no coincidence that the florals recall the still lifes of the old masters. Those alluded to the transience of all life. Mine, though, may make you think of the permanence of today‘s human remains. What is more, they reveal the latent knowledge of product design and brands, which for most of us, by far exceeds our knowledge of herbs, flowers and trees.
On flickr you can view the images at your own pace.
»Rose is a rosy is a rosary is a grocery is a waitrose. Have your pick!«
Gertrude Stein
The »throwaway culture work« of the Berlin phenomenologist Juli Gudehus consists of packaging madness.
Gerhard Matzig, »Wenn Müll Blüten treibt« (»When waste blossoms«), Süddeutsche Zeitung