Author(s): Martina Weinhart (Editor); Sebastian Baden (Text by); Heather Davis (Text by); HazMatLab (Text by); Anna Huber (Text by)

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN < | CONTEMPORARY ART | HATJE CANTZ

Utopian promise, ecological threat: how artists have envisioned plastic, from Haus-Rucker-Co to Pascale Marthine Tayou.  From its inception plastic has fascinated artists, as both a symptom and a symbol of mass culture.   In the brief history of its existence, however, its status has gone from the epitome of progress, utopian spirit and democratization of consumerism to an ecological threat.

Plastic World offers a broad panorama of the artistic use of plastic through more than 100 objects, assemblages, installations, environments and films by some 50 international artists.  It examines the full spectrum of plastic's reception, from pop-culture euphoria and the "trash" works of Nouveau Réalisme in the 1960s to the futuristic influence of the Space Age and the ecocritical positions of the present.

Artists include: Monira Al Qadiri, Archigram, Arman, César, Christo, Haus-Rucker-Co, Eva Hesse, Hans Hollein, Craig Kauffman, Kiki Kogelnik, Gino Marotta, James Rosenquist, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Pinar Yoldas.