Plastic Planet Series: Feel The Heat, Single-use plastic bags, 2020, 2" x 3"

My works in this installation contain hundreds of single-use plastic bags, a tiny portion of the estimated 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) plastic bags used and discarded worldwide annually. The bags have been individually hand-cut, hand-pieced, and hand-stitched using the traditional needlework methods of weaving, knitting and crocheting. Plastic is a living part of our natural world. We eat, drink, and breathe much of the plastic we have collectively “thrown away.” Plastic is in our bodies. It is literally raining down on us, every day. Our complicated relationship with plastic creates a legacy, one that provides future generations with the detritus of our uncontrollable consumerism. Experienced together, my works for To the Touch provide the viewer with an opportunity to engage with plastic in contemplative ways. Take a stroll through the constructed plastic rain shower. Gently touch and smell the woven wall of yellow plastic. Gaze at the sparkle, shine, and oddly beautiful texture of the ubiquitous plastic bags in both works. Take your time. Plastic isn’t going anywhere.

Marsha Borden grew up in New York and currently resides in New Haven County, Connecticut. After nearly fifteen years as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist for public schools and research centers including Yale University, she is a full-time visual artist and freelance writer with a focus on textiles and material culture. Her award-winning artwork has been selected for inclusion in numerous national and local exhibitions, including at Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition in New York City, Hera Gallery in Rhode Island, Kehler Liddell Gallery and Real Art Ways (RAW) in Connecticut, Hudson River Museum and Roger Tory Peterson Institute in New York, and numerous others. She writes for several print and online publications, including Piecework magazine and Farm and Fiber Knits magazine, contributing scholarly articles and original essays about traditional needlework methods, materials and makers.

www.marshaborden.com

@marshamakes