Wickery Not Plastic

Cultural paradigms lend meaning and value to the things that we typically employ in daily life without too much criticism and not a great deal of critique. Subliminal cultural paradigms lend meaning and value to the things that the so-called first world typically employ in daily life and without too much criticism nor a great deal of critical enquiry. At the same time cultural landscapes become the subject of discussion, sometimes the subject of disdain and division, and in a socio-political context the ‘placescaping’ that is ongoing is impacted upon by the social and cultural expectations that shape these landscapes. The materiality of that which is traded within our current and past cultural landscapes provide strong indicators of just what it is that is valued, that is shaping and that has shaped these landscapes. Here we see willow called-out as a weed and plastic, and the industries involved in its production, are similarly, and increasingly, disparaged.

 

PLASTIC IS NOT RUBBISH UNLESS WE IMAGINE IT THAT WAY

Design from Eindhoven, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Dave Hakkens shows us just how his Precious Plastic recycling machines work and explains why he made the blueprints freely available online.It's time to reimagine 'plastic' and think of it in the way say 'gold' has been imagined for thousands of years. Its actually 'precious stuff' and when its thought of as 'rubbish' it becomes dangerous stuff..... Click here to read and see more 

Largely, in the so-called first-world, and increasingly so globally,'WILLOWweaving' has been displaced by the technologies, economic paradigms and the cultural sensibilities that give 'plastics' the precedence once enjoyed by organic fibres and materials – willow, cane, hemp etc. 

Without doubt in the preindustrial era the impact of 'waste'

upon cultural landscapes were minimal and well enough managed. The same cannot be said for the so-called waste stream attached to the manufacturing and waste disposal frameworks linked to plastic as the now ubiquitous material it has become contentiously divisive and a subject of increasing environmental concern. 

The 'winning' of the materials for basketry did shape pre-industrial landscapes and in some instances quite dramatically. In postcolonial Australia and quite noticeably in Tasmania, willows have won the reputation as weed, invasive plant and something to be eradicated almost at any cost. Curiously, 'plastic'' is winning for itself a reputation not too dissimilar and via the agency of 'useful products' a link can be divined.