The oil we extract from Mother Earth is formed from micro-organisms that lived 68 million years ago. Oil is such a precious resource that powerful men will go to war to gain and keep control of it. The wealth it generates bestows even more power.
We produce plastic from oil: plastic, so often an object of distain - to be used and disposed of. Plastic pollutes the environment when the oil is extracted, refined and produced, only to cause further pollution when it is finally discarded. Plastic is not perishable; "plastics are forever". With so much at stake, perhaps we should regard plastic as one of the most precious materials that we have.
I am working with plastic once more. This is the material I used in combination with silver in my early work, back in the 80's and in plastic laminate in my "Bathing jewellery" during the 90's
In this collection I have sought to make plastic interact with gold and silver. Here, the metal is no longer laminated in plastic, it is rather plastic that is covered with 23 carat gold leaf and fine silver leaf and subsequently heat-treated. I call this material “A synergy of gilded plastic”.
Some of the pieces have manipulated enlarged photographs of micro-organisms such as dinoflagellate. These add patterns to the forms. Perhaps this is a game I have played - creating a new material - the new gold. Of course, there is little in my work that a geologist would recognize: but it has inspired me to think further, to intensify the "love" aspect of my love-hate relationship to plastic.
The thought that the entire process has taken more then 68 million years makes me humble in the face of the Creator's work and the resources that exist in Mother Earth. I find inspiration in the patterns of micro organisms, shapes that can resemble seeds and spores. I am always preoccupied with contrasts – those we find in materials as well as in their constituents: contrasts between the beautiful and the ugly, the conventional and the surprising. In this way, I seek to find expression for harmony between past and present.
Fie von Krogh
