During Earth Day, organizers urge us to "Imagine a world without plastic pollution." In this spirit, Flow Art Space represented Erik Olson.
Olson's work addresses the effects of consumerism and mass consumption. He quilts and stitches together plastic waste that transcends the medium without denying what it is. The result embodies Marshall McLuhan’s concept the medium is the message.
Please contact us with questions by clicking here.
Olson's work addresses the effects of consumerism and mass consumption. He quilts and stitches together plastic waste that transcends the medium without denying what it is. The result embodies Marshall McLuhan’s concept the medium is the message.
Please contact us with questions by clicking here.
Comments from Erik Olson:
Beach Combing on Midway with El Anatsui
This piece is an homage, to working with recycled/up-cycled materials to create “bottle top installations.” It is also a comment on the amount of plastic on the beaches of Midway. On Midway you do not actually have to comb the beach to find plastic for it is entirely covered with it.
Google El Anatsui to see his breathtaking work.
Bird Feeder
When sea birds die in the wild and their corpses are found rotting, you can see large amounts of plastic in their guts – eating it has killed them. This is a comment on how we are killing the very thing – a healthy environment – that keeps us alive in order to satisfy our desire for convenience and our consumerist cravings. Note the crucifix-like position of the bird. As crucifixions were a common occurrence in imperialistic Rome, this is also a comment about a common occurrence of our own imperialism.
From Sea to Shining Sea
This one is quite simple. We are literally covering our country in plastic waste as though our patriotism depended on our consumption of goods. There is now one ton of plastic for every single person on earth.
Not in My Backyard
The winds of change are coming. They have to. Whether it is the building of a half-way house or a mass transit rail line in a suburban neighborhood or public funding to change the way we consume and waste, the initial reaction is always, “Not in my neighborhood.” Change is hard.
Not in My Backyard Either
Then when an alternative location or method of change is proposed, the reaction from that neighborhood is, “Not in my neighborhood either.”
Nurturing Neglect
Like birds that lay their eggs in other birds’ nests (Cuckoos and Cowbirds) we leave that for which we should be responsible (like our waste and the consequences of it) to someone else’s care.
Oh, Glorious Empire
We must be careful about that which we raise our hands in praise... military symbols can be taken literally or as a metaphor of our economic power and the over consumption that comes with it.
rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme
(Neither Created nor Destroyed)
This is an abstract representation of The Law of Conservation of Matter: in a chemical reaction, matter is neither created nor destroyed, it only changes. It was discovered by Antoine Lauren Lavoisier about 1785. Plastic can change form but it lasts forever.
We Think We’re All That
This piece is a comment on how the actions and attitudes of the white Christian right (which I used to be part of) reflect their believe system: God blesses the righteous; we are very materially blessed; therefore we are righteous and everything we do must therefore be righteous. This is very bad theology indeed and shows an imperialistic reading/interpretation of scripture. ...consequences of mass consumption and waste. Instead I have found many scriptural passages—new and old testaments—that promote quite the opposite.
I probably bit off more than I could chew with this piece, but there it is. I made my statement. Even if I tried to put too much idea into this piece, I still think it is one of the better pieces I have done.
Generally, the more pedantic the message of a piece is, the more I seem to like it – a product of my inner arrogance and self-righteousness I suppose. Over the years I have become more and more concerned about environmental and social justice and how they are very much connected... Making art is a great way for me to get on my soapbox and preach without ever having to talk to anyone – except you of course!
Process:
The intellectual concept for a piece usually sparks before the visual is realized. On a few occasions the visual and verbal occur simultaneously. I try not to assign a meaning to a pre-existing visual that just happens to be in my head. I have done this before and the results are not good. Those pieces never see the light of day and are recycled into subsequent art. When entering juried shows, I have entered only finished pieces that already fit the theme of the show. I have tried to create pieces specifically within a theme, but the results look like I was doing a school assignment that I really hated doing. About 25% of the ideas I have make it to paper sketches. Of those paper sketches, about 50% make it to production. And of those produced, less than half are put out to the public.
Some pieces are constructed by patterns (Oh, Glorious Empire and Bird Feeder) which I create and print by computer. And, yes I do use pre-used computer paper. Some pieces are built directly from the sketch (Not in My Backyard and We think We’re All That). And still others are created completely organically (Beach Combing on Midway and Plastic Dreams of Entropy–see my website for this one, it is the first pic in the gallery).
The original raw material came from the waste and R&D process from a business my friend had which manufactured functional items from quilted single-use plastic. I have ... “plabric” ...made up of about 8 layers of plastic. More is too thick to sew and less is too flimsy to support its own weight. On rare occasions I do have to make more “plabric.” And when I do, I am now incorporating the thread clippings and small plastic chips and skitters between the top and or clear layers. Yes, I save all the thread and plastic clippings too. The goal is zero waste after all.
The plastics used are mostly low-density single-use plastics. Bulk potato and onion bags and also pallet wrap (which makes great batting) from local grocers make up the bulk of the material. Consumer plastics such as frozen food bags, plastic convenience bags and newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, even the big plastic bags in which mattresses are delivered are used. Old Mylar balloons are also used on occasion. Home food storage bags like Ziploc and garbage bags are not used – cleaning them makes too big of a carbon footprint and using new ones would defeat the purpose. Even the thread comes from the overruns and leftover cones of ready-to-wear manufacturing. The sewing machines are a hand-me-down straight-stitch from 1960 and a bartered serger. I have stopped using wooden rods and and d-rings for hanging because I had to buy new. I am trying to use as little new material in the process as possible – so far the only new materials I use are needles and sewing machine belts, pre-used ones are really no longer useable. Most of my carbon footprint is electric for lights and machines and gas for heating my space.
Beach Combing on Midway with El Anatsui
This piece is an homage, to working with recycled/up-cycled materials to create “bottle top installations.” It is also a comment on the amount of plastic on the beaches of Midway. On Midway you do not actually have to comb the beach to find plastic for it is entirely covered with it.
Google El Anatsui to see his breathtaking work.
Bird Feeder
When sea birds die in the wild and their corpses are found rotting, you can see large amounts of plastic in their guts – eating it has killed them. This is a comment on how we are killing the very thing – a healthy environment – that keeps us alive in order to satisfy our desire for convenience and our consumerist cravings. Note the crucifix-like position of the bird. As crucifixions were a common occurrence in imperialistic Rome, this is also a comment about a common occurrence of our own imperialism.
From Sea to Shining Sea
This one is quite simple. We are literally covering our country in plastic waste as though our patriotism depended on our consumption of goods. There is now one ton of plastic for every single person on earth.
Not in My Backyard
The winds of change are coming. They have to. Whether it is the building of a half-way house or a mass transit rail line in a suburban neighborhood or public funding to change the way we consume and waste, the initial reaction is always, “Not in my neighborhood.” Change is hard.
Not in My Backyard Either
Then when an alternative location or method of change is proposed, the reaction from that neighborhood is, “Not in my neighborhood either.”
Nurturing Neglect
Like birds that lay their eggs in other birds’ nests (Cuckoos and Cowbirds) we leave that for which we should be responsible (like our waste and the consequences of it) to someone else’s care.
Oh, Glorious Empire
We must be careful about that which we raise our hands in praise... military symbols can be taken literally or as a metaphor of our economic power and the over consumption that comes with it.
rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme
(Neither Created nor Destroyed)
This is an abstract representation of The Law of Conservation of Matter: in a chemical reaction, matter is neither created nor destroyed, it only changes. It was discovered by Antoine Lauren Lavoisier about 1785. Plastic can change form but it lasts forever.
We Think We’re All That
This piece is a comment on how the actions and attitudes of the white Christian right (which I used to be part of) reflect their believe system: God blesses the righteous; we are very materially blessed; therefore we are righteous and everything we do must therefore be righteous. This is very bad theology indeed and shows an imperialistic reading/interpretation of scripture. ...consequences of mass consumption and waste. Instead I have found many scriptural passages—new and old testaments—that promote quite the opposite.
I probably bit off more than I could chew with this piece, but there it is. I made my statement. Even if I tried to put too much idea into this piece, I still think it is one of the better pieces I have done.
Generally, the more pedantic the message of a piece is, the more I seem to like it – a product of my inner arrogance and self-righteousness I suppose. Over the years I have become more and more concerned about environmental and social justice and how they are very much connected... Making art is a great way for me to get on my soapbox and preach without ever having to talk to anyone – except you of course!
Process:
The intellectual concept for a piece usually sparks before the visual is realized. On a few occasions the visual and verbal occur simultaneously. I try not to assign a meaning to a pre-existing visual that just happens to be in my head. I have done this before and the results are not good. Those pieces never see the light of day and are recycled into subsequent art. When entering juried shows, I have entered only finished pieces that already fit the theme of the show. I have tried to create pieces specifically within a theme, but the results look like I was doing a school assignment that I really hated doing. About 25% of the ideas I have make it to paper sketches. Of those paper sketches, about 50% make it to production. And of those produced, less than half are put out to the public.
Some pieces are constructed by patterns (Oh, Glorious Empire and Bird Feeder) which I create and print by computer. And, yes I do use pre-used computer paper. Some pieces are built directly from the sketch (Not in My Backyard and We think We’re All That). And still others are created completely organically (Beach Combing on Midway and Plastic Dreams of Entropy–see my website for this one, it is the first pic in the gallery).
The original raw material came from the waste and R&D process from a business my friend had which manufactured functional items from quilted single-use plastic. I have ... “plabric” ...made up of about 8 layers of plastic. More is too thick to sew and less is too flimsy to support its own weight. On rare occasions I do have to make more “plabric.” And when I do, I am now incorporating the thread clippings and small plastic chips and skitters between the top and or clear layers. Yes, I save all the thread and plastic clippings too. The goal is zero waste after all.
The plastics used are mostly low-density single-use plastics. Bulk potato and onion bags and also pallet wrap (which makes great batting) from local grocers make up the bulk of the material. Consumer plastics such as frozen food bags, plastic convenience bags and newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, even the big plastic bags in which mattresses are delivered are used. Old Mylar balloons are also used on occasion. Home food storage bags like Ziploc and garbage bags are not used – cleaning them makes too big of a carbon footprint and using new ones would defeat the purpose. Even the thread comes from the overruns and leftover cones of ready-to-wear manufacturing. The sewing machines are a hand-me-down straight-stitch from 1960 and a bartered serger. I have stopped using wooden rods and and d-rings for hanging because I had to buy new. I am trying to use as little new material in the process as possible – so far the only new materials I use are needles and sewing machine belts, pre-used ones are really no longer useable. Most of my carbon footprint is electric for lights and machines and gas for heating my space.