Urban Tumbleweeds

An update for anyone who missed seeing 2663 Urban Tumbleweeds at Burning Man. As fate would have it, It turned out to be a "temporary' installation.

Although it was a registered work of art, approved by the ARTery in advance, a DPW border patrol worker tore the project down on Tuesday morning, thinking it was "commando rubbish" and potentially compromising the integrity of the trash fence due to the wind load captured by the bags secured to the fence itself.

In case anyone was confused about the intention of the chain, there were also 22 repurposed vinyl signs along the way stating facts and additional calculations, such as "at our current rate of consumption this chain would stretch around the world in just 14 hours." Even still, not everyone can see plastic bags as art.

Overall, we found that the message of mindless consumption is sadly still very relevant. Many people have cited a deeper awareness of the impact of their actions gained through this project.

This art approach was 5,000 hot!

Cheri,

Wouldn't it be something if all plastic bags could be "refined" and subsequently used as fuel? Imagine it - Out of the landfills and into our cars, home heating systems, etc.

I agree your point of view has purpose, however, have you consdidered two things?

First, will the majority who see your exhibit understand that it's representative art or will they ignore it for trash agaist the fence?

Secondly, have you anchored it down such that it will not blow off and become the desert tumbleweed you are so trying to be rid of?

I sure hope your plan isn't to release your chain into the horizon as you say.

Nice!

nicely done. she said something about if she did a lenght of bags that represented how many were used in 5 seconds it would go around the world. or something along those lines.

Everyone talks about the endpoint of plastic bags, about how they become refuse and garbage. But I want to know about the front-end. If the world consumes 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags a year, how many barrels of oil does this represent (most plastic is petroleum-based), how much waste is produced by making them, and how much energy is consumed in making them?

sigh. Beautiful. Disturbing.