“Plastic is Forever” is a full-scale inflatable structure installed in Lexington, NY that is a critique of the recycling sign and its infinite promise. Plastic cannot truly be recycled without more harvesting and can never fully decompose. Every piece of plastic ever produced is still around right now. In that way, film plastics symbolize both the eternal pollution and footprint that humans have marked on Earth, as well as the death of so many lifeforms and potentially life as we know it. Inflating our structure breathes both life and awareness into this infinite vortex of death and destruction.
Through this inflatable studio, we wanted to make a critique of the material itself, forcing people to realize its permanent existence on the planet. Through several test models of different forms and technical methods, eventually, our concept developed into a woven tri-loop critiquing the recycling model and inflicting a sense of confusion, partial fun while crossing overlapping tubes, and ultimately a sense of infinite enclosure and potential suffocation.
Our final project used 6,000 sq ft of plastic, including trash, and collected film plastics to display messages reading “This will never decompose” and “plastic is forever.” Four of us built the entire structure and installed it in Upstate New York.
