Where Would Contemporary Art Be Without Plastic?

Where Would Contemporary Art Be Without Plastic?

Arthur Jafa, "Ex-Slave Gordon" (2017), vacuum-formed plastic (© Arthur Jafa; image courtesy the artist)The motivating query behind Plastics, an art conservation anthology by Anne Gunnison and David Joselit, is simple: “What do we learn about plastics when seen through the lens of art?” The answers to that question, posed by co-editor Caroline Fowler in her introduction, prove complex, given that its artistic uses are as malleable as plastic itse…