Artwork > Crocheted Plastic Bag Sculptures

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities...
Shunryu Suzuki

I have been seduced by plastic and it was unavoidable. Plastic, available in a rainbow of beguiling colors, is the primary material for a toxic love affair, entwined with a sense of wonderment and of aesthetic and ethical probing. It has been this way for a long time.

The superabundance of plastic store bags made them simple to collect and their malleability easy to transform into shapes of my choice. Ultimately I gathered thousands of them in every color imaginable. And even though many of them were reused in various projects and even though New York has now outlawed them at the store, many, many containers with plastic bags still remain on the shelves in my studio. In order to end this affair the only way I can, I must use them up, making art.

Weaving and crocheting plastic bags turned into strips is a meditative practice that gives strength to this relationship. The resulting transformations keep me engaged.

Letting It All Hang Out
crocheted plastic bags, wire lampshade frame, aluminum wire
83" 31" 16"
2021
Made for Dia de Muertos a Matter of Life at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.
crocheted plastic bags, aluminum wire
96" x 69"
2019
Ofrenda (detail)
crocheted plastic bags, aluminum wire
96" x 69"
2019
Gaze Upon My Countenance
crocheted plastic bags, metal wire
74" x 36" x 30"
2019
Light Spectrum
crocheted plastic bags, wire lampshade frames
120" x 21" x 21"
2017
Estas En Tu Casa (this is your home) is a large crocheted plastic bag floor piece.
crocheted plastic bags
64" x .75" x 108"
2015
Estas En Tu Casa (detail)
crocheted plastic bags
2015
Market Bag
Crocheted used plastic bags
44" x 40" x 12"
2014
Rope
Crocheted used plastic bags
5 pieces: 110"-120" Height x 1.5" Diameter each
2013
Donald Judd's Grandmother
crocheted plastic bags, steel rod
36" x 36" x 36"
2010
Antonia's Folly
crocheted plastic bags, plastic hula hoop
114" x 40" diameter
2010
Mesh
crocheted plastic bags
20" x 15"
2013
Holy Square
crocheted plastic bags
17.5" x 17.5"
2013
Red Openings
crocheted plastic bags
16.75" x 15.25"
2013
Granny Diamond
Crocheted used plastic bags
2013