Monthly Statement:
November 2005
Total Bag Count: 1,014
Monthly total: 318
154 black - 139 white - 25 color

My bag count has been steadily decreasing each month. I think It is safe to assume that this is in no way indicative of a decrease in public bag consumption or bag littering. Rather, it is a direct product of my frustration with trying to come up with a way of presenting the bags in time for the December exhibit.

For example, I began accumulating this month thinking I had finally figured out what I was going to do with them. The plan was to lay the bags out on the floor and cover them with anchored sheets of Plexiglas creating a new surface to walk upon. By mid-month I realized this was not going to be feasible in the space for the show nor would it be affordable. I also had my suspicions that this was a really dumb idea. Regardless, for the first week of November I confidently accumulated more bags than in any other week over the three-month period (over 150). After I axed this plan my numbers sharply declined.

For the last week of November I played around with the bags attempting to arrive at a resolution through experimenting with their form. Through these experimentations I saw that that crunched up bags bear a resemblance to clouds (see picture). With fishing line I've begun tying the scrunched bags together into aggregates sorted by month. I don't know how stable they will be suspended from the ceiling but I would like to create storm clouds out of these blobs. This might be a way of resolving the ratio of black to white bags and it would be good to make use of the space overhead.

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.