PLASTIC UTOPIA
PLASTIC UTOPIA
CREDITS
Dutch photographer Henri Blommers creates a false utopia in his series of plastic objects living free amidst nature. Rich in colour, the images are sensual and draw us in with the illusion of health and vitality within the environment. Yet, all too soon, we spy the debris in the scene made of plastic — a material known to take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to decompose. Among the plants and flowers, we see bottle caps and bags, strings and containers. There is a plethora of plastic wildlife, mirroring the surrounding floral species diversity.
Blommers has the activist aim of engaging with the impact of human consumption on our Earth yet, he says, without the usual doom and gloom on the subject. “It is a celebration of the beauty of nature,” he says, “in the hope that nature will be strong enough to absorb these fossils of the future.” While this hope seems merely wishful thinking at this stage, it is brought to life in Plastic Utopia in the form of a happy coexistence of plants and plastic.
A selection of images from Plastic Utopia will be on exhibit from February 12 – April 28, 2018 at Fotogalerie de Gang, in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The exhibition will open on Saturday, February 10 at 4PM.
