Plastic is everywhere. It surrounds us day after day and our present is hardly conceivable without it. Plastics were also used early on in art and design and became a central material. With objects, assemblages, installations, and films by over 50 international artists, the richly illustrated catalog for the exhibition Plastic World opens up a broad panorama of the artistic use of plastic - from the euphoria of 1960s Pop Art to the futuristic influence of the Space Age and the trash works of Nouveau Réalisme to ecocritical positions of recent times. In different chapters, the catalog uses essays, interviews, and artist texts to trace the developments that this material took within a very short time. The beginnings in the "Plastic Age", when the material was considered the epitome of progress, modernity, utopian spirit, and democratization, are illuminated, as well as the most diverse material experiments and the increasingly critical artistic questioning.

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A hitherto unique compendium that, thanks to the large number of illustrations and documentary material, allows one to immerse oneself in a diverse Plastic World rich in colors and forms, thus offering a unique overview of the use of synthetic materials in the visual arts.

CATALOG Plastic World edited by Martina Weinhart, with contributions by Heather Davis, Anna Huber, Dietmar Rübel, Pamela Voigt, Friederike Waentig, and Martina Weinhart, as well as a foreword by the director of the SCHIRN Kunsthalle Frankfurt Sebastian Baden, German-English edition, 256 pages, ca. 190 illustrations, 22 x 28 cm, hardcover, Hatje Cantz Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7757-5467-5, 39 € (SCHIRN), 48 € (bookstore)