Dutch trash artist on the hunt for litter in spotless #Aarhus2017

You can't help but grin at the sight of a cute little jellyfish consisting of a bottle and an orange net. A spray bottle with a well-placed cap becomes a penguin, or a goose. Even rolled-up hair, harvested from a washing machine, does not escape Adriaansche's universe: a family of flies called Musca capillus. It does something to the way you look.

'Where do you buy glue guns here?' Carolien Adriaansche is in a hurry. Two weeks she has, to create an artwork, conduct a workshop and collect materials. Aarhus Billedkunstcenter (AABKC), a local visual arts centre, has invited her as artist-in-residence.

The artwork she will make is a special commission from Rethinking Matter, a project of AABKC [hints]Rethinking Matter has organised three exhibitions in six months, Biotic Synthetic being the latest. The first was about sense of touch, the second about the tension between digital processes aesthetics and matter. And the third, Biotic Synthetic, about organic and synthetic materials, and the nature-culture opposition[/hints] as part of Aarhus European Capital of Culture (ECC), or #Aarhus2017. It refers to one of the themes of #Aarhus2017: sustainability. Curator Pamela Grombacher discovered Carolien Adriaansche's work on the internet and fell for Adriaansche's approach to biodiversity. From the material that threatens this planet's biodiversity, she creates a new, parallel biodiversity. From plastic.

That seems banal and pedantic, but it does not come across that way when you are face to face with her creations. Rather inventive, at times comical, but always cheerful. You can't help but grin at the sight of a cute little jellyfish consisting of a bottle and an orange net. A spray bottle with a well-placed cap becomes a penguin, or a goose. Even rolled-up hair, harvested from a washing machine, does not escape Adriaansche's universe: a family of flies called Musca capillus. It does something to the way you look.

Plastic obsession

Originally, Carolien Adriaansche (1963) trained as a theatre designer and illustrator at the Rietveld Academy. Afterwards, she started her company De Afvaljuf. With it, she organises workshops for schools and companies using, what else, waste plastic.

She has a thing for collections and families. 'It started when I was little and we were on holiday in France. We visited the natural history museum in Bordeaux, and I was deeply impressed by the multitude, the multiplicity, and all those colourfully arranged collections.'

How those collections eventually turned up in her work has to do with sustainability. 'I began to notice how inescapably much plastic we use. Don't get me wrong: plastic is a wonderful material. But I also noticed that we usually only used it once. Huge quantities become waste. Recently, we did have to collect it for recycling, but that is still hugely expensive. And the associated transport also pollutes.

Parallel biodiversity

The realisation that biodiversity is under threat did not leave her. As a result, she started making collections of a parallel homemade biodiversity. And so plastic became her obsession. 'In supermarkets, I am always aware of packaging.' On the street, she keeps half an eye on litter, and for a round dumpster diving (looking for things in large rubbish containers) she does not turn her hand away. Festivals are also good finding spots for large quantities of one kind (or colour) of plastic. And on New Year's Day, it is now a firm tradition for her to take a walk around the neighbourhood, collecting plastic parts from fireworks.

But on her own, she does not get enough plastic together. So she has gradually built up a network of acquaintances and companies that keep and collect things for her. 'The funny thing is that many people often collect things I wouldn't choose myself, but that's how you come up with new ideas.'

From Plastic Soup to sea creatures

She also had help in Aarhus. On arrival, it turned out that the AABKC organisation itself had already collected plastic boxes, bottles, caps, nets and other things. And during a workshop with four other artists, she was helped to make plastic animals. Because it was clear beforehand that she could not create such a large work of art, especially for that place, without help.

As a matter of fact, she modified the pre-conceived plan along the way. The plastic I found here actually pushed me in a slightly different direction. At first I envisioned a plastic landscape à la Plastic Soup, but it has now become a collection of marine animals and underwater creatures, displayed in showcases. Totally like a natural history museum.'

Surely plastic in Denmark, and its collection, is different from that in the Netherlands. 'I noticed that there is so little litter. So I started looking on building sites, and there they were happy with me. 'At least then we don't have to throw it away ourselves,' I heard a few times. Also, the plastic is not very colourful, and in the supermarkets I saw there was not that much choice either.'

Incidentally, you can also be wrong about what constitutes waste. 'I found a roll of red tyre on the street, and loaded it on my bike. But a little further on I found another roll like that. And another, and another. Then I understood it was the stuff they had prepared for road works!' She quickly put the roll back.

Focus

Meanwhile, the work of art is all but finished. The acquired glue guns can be put back in their holsters, the plastic-filled studio, filled to the brim with lightning speed, is already almost empty again and she has to return the loaner bike. 'It was wonderful to spend two weeks just working hard on art. At home, I'm often distracted by family, housework, my company De Afvaljuf and all kinds of other things. Pure luxury to only have to focus on one thing!'