Bottle Caps

From when the alarm clock rings to the sound of the water splashing against your plastic toothbrush lined with toothpaste, to when you enter the kitchen and pack your lunch in a disposable bag hop into your car and top off the tank, your daily motions are inundated and even defined by use of petroleum based products. Popular consciousness of one’s individual oil consumption is typically limited to that of their fuel consumption, the everyday encounters glanced over in familiar disregard. For this piece my objective was to focus the viewer’s attention to the wide-spread use of petroleum in expected and rather unannounced places.  I chose to use bottle caps taken from plastic soda bottles, milk jugs, water bottles, condiment dispensers, etc. to make collages of logos from popular brands. The potent monochromatic coloration of the caps is a testament to the mass production of petroleum products, the viewer’s familiarity with them further intimating their omnipresence in contemporary living.  These collages manifest in a series of six pieces, a Behr logo referencing the petrochemicals used in paints in both fine art and home improvement spheres, Round-Up logo representing the petroleum found in fertilizers and other plant care products, McDonalds logo representing the to-go materials of the restaurant industry, Tupperware logo representing the use of plastics in the kitchen, BMW logo referencing the petroleum based fuel as well as plastic parts used in transportation, and the Apple logo representing the use of petroleum products in the computer and technology industry. 

 To include a drawing in my found art portfolio, I was inspired by the MOMA's exhibit, On Line, in which drawings took on three dimensions, were completed with non-traditional tools, some void of paper.  I decided to use bottle caps as my medium in creating this semi two dimensional work. I was struck by the abundance of these circular shapes that decorate our daily routine. Not recyclable in most places, these objects may seem small, but amount to a great mass with the frequency with which one person both uses and disposes of them. I decided to create a series of logos, reminiscent of both the consumptive culture which creates these disposable items and the mass production with which it is done, of companies that use petrochemicals in their products.

To begin, I researched companies that specifically used petroleum based products and collected a variety of logos; I wanted a wide array to choose from as I wasn't sure collectively, what I would have the right colored bottle caps for. I collected the bottle caps from my own daily use, but I did not have a large number nor enough, so I got the majority of them from my local Reuse Center. This research took approximately two hours from beginning to final decision. For each logo I assembled the design individually, then measured the final size so that I could cut the wood for the backs of each piece. When I was finished arranging each piece I began to tape them together with blue painters tape so that they wouldn't move in transit. The time to assemble and secure each logo varied, as they are all greatly different sizes, but it averaged about forty five minutes to an hour for each one. After each board was cut, I painted them solid white so as to match the wall they would be hung upon. Once they were all dry, I transferred the taped bottle caps onto the wooden frames and row by row began to hot glue them down, another petroleum based product. The larger pieces took between forty five minutes and an hour and a half to glue down, the smaller ones went by a lot quicker.

Upon reflection of my completed works, I am not terribly please with the turnout, and there are a few things I think would have enhanced this project. Instead of mounting them on wooden frames, it would have been interesting to submerge the caps into a mold of clear gel. This method was beyond my means, as I do not have any experience in mold making or familiarity with gel mediums. Another potential idea would have been to melt the bottle caps into molds, creating a more solid plaque.

 There is an inherent precariousness in working with such recognizable and easily identifiable material such as company logos from capitalist America. I worry that the environmental and political implications I aimed to invoke in this piece are not as easily read behind these icons and will reflect upon ways to revise this concept or another project that more successfully invokes such connections.