EVERLASTING PLASTICS: 2023 VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE
From the curators:
“Petrochemical polymers known as plastics were developed in the United States as a revolutionary material. Today the global urgency to reframe our approach to the overabundance of plastic detritus in our waterways, landfills, and streets is clear. Exploring our fraught, yet enmeshed, kinship with plastics, Everlasting Plasticsconsiders the ways these materials both shape and erode contemporary ecologies, economies, and the built environment. This exhibition highlights our unseen dependency; demonstrates how plasticity has created expectations for the behaviors of other materials; and points to plastic’s unknown, long-term, and indelible impact on our futures.”
Working within a new material framework for his practice, Norman Teague embraces experimentation through the (re)use of extruded plastics. Within this body of work, he performs cultural memory, drawing from Bolga and Agasekebasket-weaving techniques, and reinterpreting traditional vessels through recycled materials. His work bridges the Global South and the Global North through a diasporic lens. Tracing waste and production streams, Teague's vessels critique Western extractivist practices in the Global South which return previously mined ore as refuse. The colors of these objects reflect prismatic commercial waste, while at times also melting together, creating bodily, earthy tones.
DESIGN CONSULTANTS/ Tom Burtonwood, Ken Dunn, Cody Norman Studios
ADVISORS/ alt_Chicago (Jordan Campbell and Jon Veal), Dee Clements, Theaster Gates, Juan De La Mora, Monsivais, Adedayo Laoye, Patric McCoy, Benjamin Pardo, Paul Preissner, Connie Spreen, Antonio Torres, McKinley Wells, Amanda Williams
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT/ UIC School of Design (Marcia Lausen, Jonathan Mekinda, PhD, Rebecca Rugg, PhD)
