Mika Rottenberg: Plastic

For the fifth film in our Material series, which examines artists’ transformations of raw materials, Mika Rottenberg takes us into her upstate New York studio, where she gives new meaning and shape to plastic, which she describes as ‘trapped ancient sunlight that cannot decompose and grow back into the system.’ For a new series of works, Rottenberg uses discarded plastics from housing complexes in Harlem, gathered and repurposed by the Inner City Green Team, a community organization.
Mika Rottenberg is an artist whose work combines film, architectural installation and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in a hyper-capitalist world. Using traditions of both cinema and sculpture, Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate, subversive visual narratives. Weaving together fact and fiction, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence.
Directed by Oresti Tsonopoulos
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Hauser & Wirth is an international contemporary and modern art gallery with spaces in Zurich, London, Somerset, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Gstaad, St. Moritz, Monaco, Menorca and Paris.
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[@keonnoek]

I love this so much. A beautiful example of reclamation. Mika’s work is always thought provoking and beautiful.

[@j.0x00n4]

Great idea. A few years ago I had a similar moment about plastic, working on the job our client came out and offered us bottled water, when giving us the water he said "shame, it's a waste of plastic", and since then It's been an eye opening moment about how valuable plastic is as a resource, how we should be using this material in better ways-not in ways that destroy our environment. Keep up the good work Mika.

[@mtomnimedia]

❤thrilling!

[@Michael62nyc]

Love the Portlandia bit. 1:26 😂

[@flaneurpainter]

Reminds me of “crimes of the future”