Helen Smith, A few facts about plastic bags

Waygood Wood

Tuesday 20 May, Helen Smith 1 - 3pm

A Few Facts about Plastic Bags
At the bottom end of Northumberland Street
Installation

13 billion plastic bags are given free to UK shoppers every year

An unestimable number of our abandoned plastic bags are swept by the wind, catch on the leaves and thorns of trees and become twisted and trapped. However plastics do not biodegrade, they take up to 1,000 years to photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxins that contaminate the soil, waterways and oceans, and enter the food chain when ingested by animals.

Waygood Wood will be dressed with these "beautiful remnants of consumerism" that the artist has collected, carefully dis-entangling them from trees and bushes. The trees will then be displayed in the busiest shopping street in Newcastle.