2019
Soft plastic packaging, cotton thread
980mm (H) x 21 metres (W)
Installation dimensions vary depending upon the space
This work was on show at Te Tuhi public art gallery, Pakuranga in 2020.
To create under intense scrutiny, I collected soft plastics used over a month by six families. The material was then hand-shredded and assembled through hand-weaving techniques to form a long plastic textile. In re-presenting ‘disposable’ plastics, I invite scrutiny of manufacturers and their processes, highlighting the importance of consumers connecting with and understanding the materials they purchase.
Karen Rubado deploys her loom to do, to undo, and to make-do, both materially and to trouble and loosen our attachments to and associations with things. A strong element that runs throughout her works is that they are unresolved, and by being situated between being done and undone, woven and unwoven there is a sense that we are part of a fleeting moment in the fabric of time.
- Text by Julia Teale