MILAN – The artist’s obsession. It could be the title of a novel, but in this case, it is the easiest way to explain the relationship between plastic bottles and Veronika Richterová, the eclectic Czech artist, who has been able to give new life to PET. In the last ten years, she has in fact used various methods of cutting, heating and assembling to construct colourful works in plastic, from crocodiles and plants, to chandeliers. Her obsession for plastic bottles does not stop at creating works of art: indeed, Ms. Richterová has collected over 3,000 PET plastic objects in over 75 countries in the last few years,, as reported at length in her article “A Tribute to PET Bottles”.
The discovery of plastic bottles and the birth of PET- art
A feeling which began to grow accidently over a decade ago: “When I discovered by chance that plastic bottles changed shape when heated – stated Ms. Richterová - I decided to make a sculpture with this material. The idea immediately came into my head to call it PET-art, but I saw it purely as a visual experiment. I did not expect plastic bottles to become such an obsession for me. Since 2004, I have used thousands of bottles to create a hundred or so works. In doing so, I have developed many specific methods of technological transformation”.
Creative recycling
Since 2004, she has dedicated herself systematically to making art from PET bottles. This highly malleable material has proved to be well-suited to the fulfilment of her artistic ideas, defining PET-art as her personal area of inspiration. In addition to their artistic activities, Ms. Richterová and the graphic designer Michal Cihlář have systematically tracked and archived everything on the theme of PET bottles. Their main activity is photographing PET-art, setting up services which document various ideas from unknown individuals who use this material in innovative ways. It shows a creative approach to the use of plastic which can be found throughout the world.
by editorial staff
