Sarcophagus

Recycled PET plastic container, acrylic, polyurethane
126 x 138 x 80 cm

The name of the duo Recycle Group evokes the recycling of industrial materials mixed with historical and mythological themes and iconography, which are omnipresent in their artistic approach. Somewhere between a tomb and a dustbin, without being either, Sarcophagus is evocative of the richly ornamented sarcophagi of antiquity, both spiritual and physical vessels on the road to death. The bas-reliefs in the work sculpt a narrative, a story that the attentive eye will recognise as the various stages in the creation of a product, from the formal idea to its material production. The end of life of this consumable is a dark omen: once its usefulness is over and our fetishisation of objects is complete, it will change its status and become waste. Suggesting a never-ending (re)cycle, Sarcophagus ironically raises the important question of how we deal with waste in contemporary society, through the diverted use of a container.