Plastic Lives

One hundred Barbie dolls are sold every minute across 150 countries. Because the toys are made from #7 non-recyclable plastics, they are not expected to decompose for at least 1,000 years— potentially outliving humans in the face of environmental collapse. As a posthuman artifact, Barbie may reflect our society’s desire for artificial immortality.

Plastic Lives (2020) is an installation that explores this concept by presenting images of Barbie devoid of her usual environments and accessories, floating in water and crude oil to emphasize her petrochemical origins. The seven abstracted figures, illuminated by shifting LED lights within reclaimed wooden frames, echo the simulated pulse of human life, highlighting the narrative capacity of plastic and our own existential anxieties.