Artist Process: Recycled Plastic - Cast and Forged Sculpture Project
Personal History: I grew up during the environmental movement, and its influence laid the foundation for how I would live the rest of my life. Thirty years ago I built a passive solar home, to which I’ve added active and passive water catchment systems over a period of years. A few years ago I added solar panels to offset our carbon footprint. To do more, I set off to evaluate my studio space and processes to see where I could make my art work more environmentally friendly. I work primarily with cast and fabricated metal, and I’ve had concerns about its impact on the environment; however, one of metal’s redeeming qualities is that we recycle it and reuse it more than any other material. When researching other materials to work with I considered plastic. It’s widely discarded, has a poor reputation as materials go and is the least recycled. After researching ways to reuse it I discovered that it has great potential to be used for casting, and it can be done on a small scale. So with years of experience casting bronze and wanting to do more to improve the environment, I took on a new challenge.
Beginning: After more research I began running tests. My first test oven, a Cuisinart Toaster Oven or as I called it my “Easy-Bake Oven,” worked well and I successfully cast several small shapes. It was time to scale up the operation. I purchased a standard electric kitchen oven on Craigslist, made some modifications to it, and went to work. In November of 2019 I embarked on a new body of work that is based primarily on recycled plastic. My goals for this project are threefold. First, I want to do more personally to reduce, reuse and recycle all materials; second, I hope to elevate the value of plastic by creating fine art out of it; and third, I hope that my creating art out of “trash” plastic encourages others to take on the challenge, thereby reducing waste and protecting the environment.
Process: I am using discarded plastic as a component material, not as found objects to assemble from. By using the casting process I can reshape the material to create something completely new and different. The process involves collecting and sorting plastic, then chopping it into small pieces. The chopped material is put into a steel mold, heated in an oven until the plastic has melted and the mold is full. When the casting has cooled it’s removed from the mold, sanded and evaluated. Next I reheat and forge the casting by hand. Various molds create different shapes and forging adds a unique organic quality to them. The finished shapes can be standalone sculptures or assembled into larger compositions with multiple elements. Using contrasting materials and processes to create my art has been a signature characteristic of my work for many years and I see great potential in being able to add plastic to those materials. Several sculptures over the past months have incorporated steel, stainless steel and wood with the cast plastic.
The casting and forging processes I’m using to create this work are not intended to be highly refined; as a result, the finished works feel more like stratified stone or sedimentary rock. This dichotomy, using the ultimate man-made material, plastic, to take on natural organic qualities, is intended to cause us to pause and rethink. Could this be a future material that is extracted from the earth, the stratified waste of the Anthropocene? I feel that art made from recycled plastic has great potential to be a very effective messenger that can generate action to preserve and protect the natural environment.