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In the beginning there was Bakelite. The first synthetic plastic, Bakelite was popularly known as 'the material of a thousand uses', taking as its trademark the mathematical symbol for infinity . Then came nylon, vinyl, polyurethane, polyethylene, perspex, polyester, polystyrene, Formica and Styrofoam, among thousands of other artificial inventions.
There are now so many varieties of and uses for plastic that just about everything we rely upon in everyday life is composed of some synthetic fibre, resin or coating. Cheap, tough, polyvalent and extremely light, plastic is one of the great miracles of the modern age, embodying the idea of infinite transformation .
Plastic is a substance that mimics other things, able to assume the guise of any form, material or object. In a forgotten essay from the 1950s, Roland Barthes argues that with no shape or substance of its own, plastic possesses a profound social and cultural ambivalence. While this ambivalence is a source of concern for Barthes, threatening the dissolution of all differences and global homogenisation, the plasticisation of contemporary life has fundamentally changed our experience of the world. Not only have plastics become more invisible and thus increasingly integrated into everyday life, but their stark proliferation has also made the world seem more pliable and disposable, open to endless reproduction, distortion and manipulation.
Composed almost entirely of plastic, Megan Marshall's artworks explore the experience of an impermanent and malleable world. The transparent nature of many of her works gives them a delicate beauty and sensuality, but it also creates the effect of a blank screen onto which the viewer is free to project dreams and desires. The shiny surface of the transparent plastic also serves as a... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline