Artist Embroiders on the Ubiquitous Plastic Bag to Transform It into an Abstract Work of Art

Artist Josh Black­well recon­sti­tutes the plas­tic bag—a sym­bol of the affront to fight­ing cli­mate change—into a work of art. Using his train­ing as a painter, he embell­ish­es the sin­gle-use plas­tic with embroi­dery stitch­es, bead­ing, weav­ing, and paint­ing. The bags are now shells of their for­mer selves. Inspired by his­tor­i­cal sources rang­ing from the Ital­ian futur­ists to out­sider art from the Amer­i­can South, these flat­tened pieces are abstract art­works that hap­pen to be plas­tic bags. They are much more pre­cious than their orig­i­nal intend­ed use.