Exhibition Review: The Plastic Bag Store
Plastic Bag Store © Tony Lewis
Written by Nick Rutolo
What is the legacy of mankind? Is it space travel? Civil rights? Or, is it what we leave behind? Robin Frohardt wants to evade a legacy littered with plastic, because at the rate we’re going, we’re going to be massively overwhelmed by our unusable and non-recyclable trash.
At first glance, “The Plastic Bag Store” is a seemingly regular grocery store. Sponsored by UCLA and commissioned by Times Square Arts in New York, the “store” is a commentary about our mass consumption and irresponsible disposal of plastic, and how our actions can influence the future’s interpretation of present day society. Frohardt curated an exhibit mocking grocery stores by mirroring a storefront and recreating every product inside of it out of plastic waste. Frohardt and other artists repurposed plastic bags, bottles, bottle caps and a variety of other disposed plastics that they salvaged from trash cans throughout New York City. Past the countless items on display, there are exhibits deeper within the store that are outstanding and comedic. Although the future presented in the store is outlandish and speculative, it raises questions about how our present recycling practices affect the environment and our future.
Plastic Bag Store © Tony Lewis
Frohardt wrote a play with puppet characters that was supposed to accompany her exhibit, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic she instead recorded it and presented the video to visitors. The play takes place across multiple time periods, tracing the lifespan of plastics from present day into a future that has lost any recollection of modern history. The play is meant to exemplify how our plastic footprint will long outlast society unless we change our ways.
Plastic Bag Store © Tony Lewis
In an interview with Times Square Arts, Frohardt said that she didn’t want to simply list off statistics about our waste; rather, she wanted to generate outrage through confrontation and provoke a conversation about our plastic’s legacy. The Jambeck Research Group at the University of Georgia estimates that we may dump up to 19 million ton of plastic waste into the oceans each year by 2025. Plastic is so engraved into our everyday life that it’s impossible to escape the mass waste, despite the recycling systems in place.
Plastic Bag Store © Maria Baranova
The grocery store holds a special place in our lives. Most of us visit it on a regular basis to shop for food, but we simultaneously curate personal collections of plastic. Although it’s always around us, it’s easy to overlook. Frohardt’s immersive experience throws us into the plastic we throw away. The store distributes plastic as often as the products it advertises, and we’re too preoccupied with the products it comes with to notice or care. If our consumerist appetite is left unchecked, the by-product will be our downfall.
We waste food and plastic in similar capacities. Too much plastic waste ends up unusable in landfills and polluting our oceans, while food is often thrown away without giving it to places and people that can benefit from it. We should heed Frohardt’s warning and be outraged at the lack of progress, because if we’re not careful, the only thing left of the world we’re trying to make a better place will be our waste.
Plastic Bag Store © Maria Baranova
