Lady Grocery Assemblage (Plastic Bag Repurposed) - Maria Leite

A 20"x20"x20" should be enough space for the assemblage to fit
Plastic bags, aged photos, jewel box, fake pearl necklace, and photo frame from (thrift store)
 
Some salvaged material
 
As a set designer and set design teacher, I have always been driven by transformation. Repurposing and recycling became an integral part of my life when in my early 20’s I accepted a position as a theater teacher in the public school system in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My almost 10 years working with limited or no budget at all, taught me how to create sets and costumes using cardboard boxes, plastic bags, old magazines and newspapers, toilet paper rolls, and more. In this assemblage I revisit my past as a teacher and as an artist. Lady Grocery (a character I created for this show) appears in aged photos wearing a headpiece and bra executed with roses and flowers made with plastic bags, one of the most common nature’s enemies. The purpose of these two pieces, in combination with the remaining salvage objects artistically combined in this assemblage, is presenting alternatives for transforming materials and repurposing objects that otherwise, would end up in the garbage and eventually polluting the environment.