BAG WORLD 2004-09
In the series Bag World, Mary Ellen explored the ubiquity of plastic bags in the environment. The first project was the making of a braided bag rope with plastic bags accumulated over a 7 month period in 2004, and is titled A Measure of Consumption: 225 days, 68 meters.
Harking back to an era when all waste was recycled, she made braided Bag Rugs from the bags which just kept piling up. In the installation, painted replicas of works by VanGogh, O'Keeffe, Monet, deChirico and Matisse, with plastic bags added to the beautiful landscapes, could only be accessed by wading through a bag-strewn floor, resulting in a performative interaction.
Waterfall is made from over 700 plastic newspaper bags and plastic water bottles, her comment on the plasticization of our world, and the destruction of the source of life itself.
Mary Ellen crocheted plastic bags into replicas of a dying coral reef, titled Bag Coral, originally created for a satellite exhibit of the Hyperbolic Crocheted Coral Reef project.
All work ©2007 except where noted.
