JTC

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UV print on metal, ceramics, shelf, plants

Installation size

2012-2023

 

A type of plant pot made with modified polydrum can frequently be found in my local neighborhood in Taiwan. The offending industrial blue and the dull texture of plastic are a bit abrupt among the usual fine ceramic and plastic mimicking brick-red. These diverse forms of plastic containers were originally used in factories to contain raw materials, wastes, lube oil, or half-finished products.

 

In Taiwan, the boundary between industrial and agricultural, and the dividing of communities and factories, are commonly blurred; in other words, they all grow together. In addition to the past policy of “House as a factory”, those factory containers were not unfamiliar to the neighbors. By the folk wisdom of discovering the other uses for things, some ousted containers were taken and turned into plant pots. This is a virtue of no waste, as well as the aesthetic of alternatives. The decommissioned plasticware becomes a negligible favour offer to the neighbors, and the plebeians gain a small compensation from the irregular industrial next door. The plants in the polydrum pot are really rooted in compromise. Although the community surroundings are not sophisticated or exactly appropriated, the opulence of the natural conditions of Taiwan allows them to thrive. ​

 

I took pictures of these plant pots and examined them as a typology. For the installation, the pictures will print on aluminium plates; having the material gleam under the image reminds us of its industrial origin. The size of the pictures changed relative to the size of plants, while the ratio of the pots is the same. Finally, the style of these polydrum pots will become refined and render them the same as authentic ceramic, and they will become a dedicated home to the plants.

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