Paint Becomes Plant, 2018 – 2023
Dried pieces of acrylic paint
Dimensions: variable

For the GlogauAIR showcase window, Gabrielle Kruger revisits the site specific installation of Paint Becomes Plant, 2018, which comprises plant-like sheets of dried acrylic paint, removed from a surface ground and pinned up onto a wall surface. Looking at traditional Western landscape painting through a contemporary lens, the paint in this case is no longer permanently painted onto a surface but exists as assemblage elements to be landscaped and integrated into the environment. It reflects that the contemporary understanding of ‘nature’ has been rearticulated, even plasticised and hence rendered malleable, through
human action. This work explores the idea of a socially and materially constructed landscape by utilising the medium of acrylic paint. Paint Becomes Plant is an investigation into the materiality of acrylic paint as a type of plastic and its potential to function as a painting without a canvas. Kruger reimagines the landscape with a material that embodies plastic. The idea of a plasticised natural environment is concomitant with the age of the Anthropocene. Since the 20th century there has been a tremendous rise in plastic as both a material element of modern life and as a growing environmental pollutant. Recent evidence indicates that traces of plastic are now in the earth, which suggests a need to rethink what exactly the ‘natural’ environment is comprised of.