Ribeaux, Tiare
Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes, 2020
Courtesy: Tiare Ribeaux, Foto: Jody Stillwater, Akademie Schloss Solitude
Tiare Ribeaux’s Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes (2020) is an online publication merging guidance on how to make bioplastics with narrative stories about the coexistence of petrochemical plastics and microplastics in ecosystems. The majority of all plastics circulating worldwide are produced from chemical raw materials derived from petroleum, or petrochemicals. Nearly every stage of the production process involves pollution and climate destructive gas emissions: from the extraction, refining, and processing of crude petroleum to the disposal of petrochemical products.
Ribeaux’s guide to making bioplastics from organic materials shares practical knowledge for sustainable material cycles. Given their exceptionally long lifespan, conventional plastics cause significant harm to ecosystems as waste products - and degrade into microplastics and toxic particles. By contrast, bioplastics pose no health risks, are fully compostable, and can be boiled down and remolded multiple times.
The raw materials needed to make the bioplastics are both affordable and easy to access. Ribeaux’s recipes for bioplastics made from gelatin, agar, and starch are open source, which is to say they can be appropriated and adapted as users see fit. The artist relies on the DIY (do it yourself) method in the interest of promoting the democratization and dissemination of knowledge and agency. At the same time, the Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes points to the healing potential of ritual action. Ribeaux thinks beyond concrete solutions to practical problems to reflect on the slow process of creating bioplastics and the encounter with organic materials it facilitates. Embedded in narratives describing the agency of non-human organisms and mythological figures, Ribeaux’s rituals, recipes, and guides have an eco-philosophical dimension.
Text: Lena Reisner; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton
Biography
Tiare Ribeaux is a kānaka maoli interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based between Honolulu and the Bay Area. Her work focuses on social and ecological imbalances, employing the atemporal landscapes of dreams to explore the
liminal dimensions of our reality and the cyclical nature of the elements as positioned within the Hawaiian cosmology/worldview.
Tiare Ribeaux’s Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes (2020) is an online publication merging guidance on how to make bioplastics with narrative stories about the coexistence of petrochemical plastics and microplastics in ecosystems. The majority of all plastics circulating worldwide are produced from chemical raw materials derived from petroleum, or petrochemicals. Nearly every stage of the production process involves pollution and climate destructive gas emissions: from the extraction, refining, and processing of crude petroleum to the disposal of petrochemical products.
Ribeaux’s guide to making bioplastics from organic materials shares practical knowledge for sustainable material cycles. Given their exceptionally long lifespan, conventional plastics cause significant harm to ecosystems as waste products - and degrade into microplastics and toxic particles. By contrast, bioplastics pose no health risks, are fully compostable, and can be boiled down and remolded multiple times.
The raw materials needed to make the bioplastics are both affordable and easy to access. Ribeaux’s recipes for bioplastics made from gelatin, agar, and starch are open source, which is to say they can be appropriated and adapted as users see fit. The artist relies on the DIY (do it yourself) method in the interest of promoting the democratization and dissemination of knowledge and agency. At the same time, the Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes points to the healing potential of ritual action. Ribeaux thinks beyond concrete solutions to practical problems to reflect on the slow process of creating bioplastics and the encounter with organic materials it facilitates. Embedded in narratives describing the agency of non-human organisms and mythological figures, Ribeaux’s rituals, recipes, and guides have an eco-philosophical dimension.
Text: Lena Reisner; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton
Biography
Tiare Ribeaux is a kānaka maoli interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based between Honolulu and the Bay Area. Her work focuses on social and ecological imbalances, employing the atemporal landscapes of dreams to explore the
liminal dimensions of our reality and the cyclical nature of the elements as positioned within the Hawaiian cosmology/worldview.