Monthly Statement:
March 2006
Total Bag Count: 1,833
Monthly Total: 169
89 black - 69 white - 11 color

Spring is here, and I am finding bags in very picturesque settings.
Continuing with the investigations from last month, March has brought greater clarity to the project. I've decided a few things. First the bags themselves should be exhibited in the gallery. All the labor that goes into cleaning them so that flies don't circle my bedroom gets lost if you can't actually touch them. For the same reason they shouldn't be rolled around in a giant ball outside. I've also come to the conclusion that the bags definitely should not be clumped together.

I haven't talked about it here yet but part of my fascination with street bags is that each one represents a set of decisions someone made, albeit usually unconscious decisions, that have consequences that go far beyond the needs of the moment. The decision to take the bag in the first place is as problematic as the decision to discard it in the street. By collecting these bags I'm making a conscious decision to intervene in that process. For this reason I think that the bags should remain separate individuals and be shown together in mass as a collection of these accumulated decisions.

Here is some research that has been informing my analysis:
• According to the EPA, In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by five million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs
• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photo-degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
• According the SF Chronicle, retailers pay just 1 cent per bag wholesale, which is included in the price of each item.
• Plastic bags were first introduced to grocery stores in 1977 making them exactly as old as myself. They now account for 4/5ths of all shopping bags.
The one stat I couldn't find that I am desperately curious about is the average time a bag stays in someone's possession before it is discarded.

But we all know bags aren't good for us. The problem is that they have become so ubiquitous, so naturalized, that, at least here in NYC you have to fight people not to be given one when you buy a cup of coffee or a pencil. We need to make bags novel, and by extension, questionable again.

Through my accumulation process I have been adding value to the bags. They aren't just bags anymore. They are a part of this different phenomenon. Embracing this preciousness, I have started autographing and dating all my bags. I am reconstructing dates based on the log I have been keeping of my daily accumulations (see pictures). For each bag that I accumulate this year I am going to produce one reusable canvass bag. It's a one for one exchange. So far that's 1,833 bags to make! I'm actually thankful that I haven't been as prolific an accumulator as I know I could have been.

Process: I am accumulating all plastic shopping bags left on the street that I encounter each time I go outside. A record is being kept of how many bags are accumulated each day for the course of the project year. For each plastic bag I accumulate I will create one reusable canvas bag.