1 Year of Plastic Waste
Recycled Plastics compiled throughout 2019, Variable Dimensions
In 2019, in response to an increased awareness of pollution & sustainability, I set out to collect and store all plastic waste that I used personally for an entire year. The plan was to display, curated by month, the entirety of my plastic consumption which took place over 365 days. In the next stage, I'd compact & compress everything, hopefully, into a minute form (I'm hoping it'll be around the size of a small football) and to cast it in resin. Sealing and making it a piece of sculptural art forever.
2 years later, I was contacted by Lynn and Burhanuddin Bakri from NST's Galeri Prima to participate in their Sustainable Environmental Arts Assemble (SEAA) campaign; to feature in a group show called 'Ameliorate'. I proposed this installation and was accepted into the show, thankfully, alongside artists like Liu Cheng Hua, Fadhli Ariffin, Sukor Romat, Faizal Suhif, Fauzin Mustafa et al.
I encountered some problems during the collection phase. Storage and cataloging, but the most life changing issue I faced was; If I am responsible for collecting and storing my own plastics, I had to make some serious decisions about who and where I bought my goods and materials from. We take for granted the idea of waste disposal in a big way. After we take out the trash, we don't think about it. But what if you were solely responsible for your own waste disposal? You'd start thinking differently.
Thankfully, I'm less OCD now and have been living again like a normal human being. Having gone through this transformative process, I'm more mindful about how we deal with waste products. Questions still linger; How do we overcome this hurdle? What companies are making the effort towards sustainable living? What products are fixed / rooted in traditional approaches? It's an ongoing battle and I'm giving props to those at the forefront of this fight.
I hope you'll come see the show. The artists have all outdone themselves in the materiality, art making and dialogue on the issue of sustainability. 'Ameliorate' runs from the 21st October - 22rd November 2021 at Galeri Prima in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
- Nicholas Choong, 27th October, 2021
Recycled Plastics compiled throughout 2019, Variable Dimensions
In 2019, in response to an increased awareness of pollution & sustainability, I set out to collect and store all plastic waste that I used personally for an entire year. The plan was to display, curated by month, the entirety of my plastic consumption which took place over 365 days. In the next stage, I'd compact & compress everything, hopefully, into a minute form (I'm hoping it'll be around the size of a small football) and to cast it in resin. Sealing and making it a piece of sculptural art forever.
2 years later, I was contacted by Lynn and Burhanuddin Bakri from NST's Galeri Prima to participate in their Sustainable Environmental Arts Assemble (SEAA) campaign; to feature in a group show called 'Ameliorate'. I proposed this installation and was accepted into the show, thankfully, alongside artists like Liu Cheng Hua, Fadhli Ariffin, Sukor Romat, Faizal Suhif, Fauzin Mustafa et al.
I encountered some problems during the collection phase. Storage and cataloging, but the most life changing issue I faced was; If I am responsible for collecting and storing my own plastics, I had to make some serious decisions about who and where I bought my goods and materials from. We take for granted the idea of waste disposal in a big way. After we take out the trash, we don't think about it. But what if you were solely responsible for your own waste disposal? You'd start thinking differently.
Thankfully, I'm less OCD now and have been living again like a normal human being. Having gone through this transformative process, I'm more mindful about how we deal with waste products. Questions still linger; How do we overcome this hurdle? What companies are making the effort towards sustainable living? What products are fixed / rooted in traditional approaches? It's an ongoing battle and I'm giving props to those at the forefront of this fight.
I hope you'll come see the show. The artists have all outdone themselves in the materiality, art making and dialogue on the issue of sustainability. 'Ameliorate' runs from the 21st October - 22rd November 2021 at Galeri Prima in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
- Nicholas Choong, 27th October, 2021