The IFF is a participating artist in the traveling exhibition Plastic Entanglements: Ecology Aethsetics Materials at the Palmer Museum of Art, University of Pennsylvania: February 13–June 17th, 2018
Plastic Entanglements: Ecology Aethsetics Materials is a traveling exhibition about humanity’s relationship with plastic curated by Joyce Robison, Jennifer Wagner-Lawler and Heather Davis. After the Palmer Museum, the exhibition will travel to Smith College Museum of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (University of Oregon), and the Chazen Museum of Art (University of Madison-Wisconsin). For the show, the IFF has created has several new plastic hyperbolic crochet sculptural works. Also in the exhibition are two large totemic works by IFF co-director Christine Wertheim constructed from discarded electrical cables and found plastic debris.
“Plastic Fantastic 1” by Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring, with black JellyYarn sea creature by Arlene Mintzer. From cover of Palmer Museum of Art catalog, 2018.
About the Exhibition:
The story of plastic is as complex as the polymer chains that make up its unique material properties. Plastic Entanglements brings together 60 works by 30 contemporary artists to explore the environmental, aesthetic and technological entanglements of our ongoing love affair with this paradoxical, infinitely malleable substance. Organized by the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, this major loan exhibition features work by an international roster of emerging and mid-career artists. Visitors will encounter a varied array of artwork, from meticulous drawings, photographs and video installations to 3D-printed objects and sculptures fabricated from found plastic.
Plastic Entanglements unfolds in three sections — The Archive; Entangled Present; and Speculative Future — charting a timeline-past, present and future-of our ongoing engagement with this ubiquitous manmade material.
Curators: Joyce Robison, Jennifer Wagner-Lawler and Heather Davis.
Participating Artists:
Moresin Allahyari, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Han Bing, Dianna Cohen, Willie Colem Bonnie Collura, Gisela Colon, Emmanuel Bakery Daou, Mark Dion, Katrin Hornek, Kelly Jazvac, Chris Jordan, Brian Jungen, Pamela Longobardi, Steve McPherson, Zanele Muholi, Vik Muniz, Mathew Northridge, Ausora Robson, Evelyn Rydz, Tejal Shah, Jessica Stockolder, Rebecca Strzelec, Ann Tarantino, Christine Wertheim, Margaret Wertheim, Deb Todd Wheeler, Kelly Wood, Pinar Yolas, Marina Zurkow.
“Chthulcene 1” by Christine Wertheim, made from scavenged electrical cables and found plastic debris.