The world is in a plastic crisis; Kim Tae-youn presents one answer.
In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide was estimated to be about 260 million tons. What Kim Tae-youn, Korea, has done as her answer to this huge problem is implement a recycling process by producing her own type of textile materials. She spins yarn, and uses weaving and sewing techniques instead of the traditional textile medium and has developed a system of producing yarn out of plastic waste material.
I collect plastic bags that do not deserve to be thrown away immediately and then produce yarn or weave fabrics by cutting, extending, and sewing them. There is one thing that I realized while finding it fun to produce more and more yarn and pieces of fabric: that there is nothing that is meant to be insignificant and unimportant from the beginning and that the value of every object can vary depending on how we see, handle, and use it. I wanted to share this experience with others. I collect plastic bags no longer in use and then I make yarn out of them. Kim Tae-youn
It took years of industry advocacy before the cellophane sack, invented in the 1960s, caught on. Plastic is versatile, lightweight, flexible, moisture resistant, strong, and relatively inexpensive. Those are the attractive qualities that lead us, around the world, to such a voracious appetite and over-consumption of plastic goods. Polyethylene, which today is one of the world’s most ubiquitous plastics, had been created in 1898; Jacques Edwin Brandenberger was a Swiss chemist and textile engineer invented cellophane in 1908. He was awarded the Franklin Institute’s Elliott Cresson Medal in 1937.
There is room for cautious optimism. Slowly, governments are beginning to outlaw plastic bags and some countries have outright banned the manufacturing of plastic. How do we attack this overwhelming problem, when so much of our personal and commercial world makes use of this omnipresent product?
Tae-youn makes not only makes functional and wearable art from her plastic yarn, she also create wonderful sculptural pieces, and exhibits her work globally.
