We love artworks that tell a unique story or aim to send out a message of change. When we stumbled upon artist, Josh Blackwell‘s embroidered plastic bags works on Pinterest, we were instantly hooked by not only it’s intricacy but the intention behind creating them. Initially raiding kitchen cupboards and city streets to collect plastic bags as an exercise for environmental conservation, Josh later gave a new life to these otherwise discarded items by adding colorful embroidery and decorative materials on them. Plastic bags being the second most common form of litter in the world, they symbolize the ambiguous nature of capitalism and brings out debated topics of convenience versus excess. By turning them into works of art, Josh seeks to celebrate everyday disposable goods and redress their degraded status. Scroll further to be mesmerized by how a disregarded item like a plastic bag can be transformed into an eye catching piece…

By sewing the two sides of the plastic bag together, Josh denies its function while revealing its essential necessity. The contrast between the use of natural threads and fabrics and the artificial quality of plastic also underlines the contradictions of an economy of waste and the demand for them.

Photo Credits: Josh Blackwell