artful repurposing

a few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to co-design a minigolf hole for an art exhibit on Governor's Island here in NYC. it was part of the Figment festival, a weekend-long (and, for some pieces, summer-long) art exhibit that featured local artists and musicians who contributed anything from massive outdoor sculptures to tiny indoor paintings, participatory theatre to mini dance parties. it's grown to be a pretty amazing event and i was thrilled that our minigolf hole, called 'tillie', was there for 3 full seasons (and even showed up in time out NY and the NY Times!).

tillie in all his glory

however, after 3 years of summer long battering by the elements, my collaborator and i decided that tillie should retire. we had no plans for a mini golf hole this year, but i really wanted to contribute to the festival. the curators really love projects that are environmentally oriented, as well as interactive, and it got me thinking...what could i create on my own that would perhaps use repurposed materials in a unique way? what i came up with was a 'community garden' (the title of my piece), in which all fo the flora and fauna were created from repurposed shopping bags, most of which was converted into plarn. what is plarn? plastic yarn. allow me to explain.

making plarn involves cutting plastic shopping bags into loops, linking them together, and, if you're really ambitious, spinning it on a drop spindle or spinning wheel. then it can be used as you would any yarn to make things like bags, flowers, baskets...anything that likes to have a little structure. it can be a bit fussy to work with at first, as it has no give, but once you get a feel for it it's easy. and goodness knows there are plenty of plastic bags to be had! i put out a call to friends and was overwhelmed with the response.

pre-cutting

snip, snip!

loop-a-rama!

aaaand...plarn! spun and unspun.

 the only problem is the colors tend to be limited...mostly white, yellow, and tan. but i did luck out and find a few interesting colors in the stash next to the fridge....some blue, black, the rare and precious pink or orange. i tried to focus on flowers that used the colors i have the most of, like lilies, sunflowers, and daffodils. the few pinks and reds were used tissue paper flower-style to make peonies. green soda bottles have been serving as flowers and bases.

lily

a rare blue plarn orchid

kindergarten style peony. hey, it works!

i still have a long way to go, plus have included as part of the installation a plarn workshop offered throughout the day to show not only how to make it, but how to crochet a plastic shopping bag to be used again and again. i'm a bit overwhelmed (what have i gotten myself into???!), but excited at the same time. and so grateful to live in a city that offers such wonderful opportunities for artists to express themselves. now,  i'm off to design a crocheted daffodil...

i'll just keep these loops safe for you. don't wanna be the victim of a plarn bandit. you're welcome.