Kalliopi Monoyios

In 2021, curator Moira Casey invited me to exhibit in a solo show at the Littleton Museum. I spent six months creating 19 new pieces from plastic food wrappers, dental floss, electrical cords and chewing gum. I dubbed the resulting exhibit of over 30 pieces of original art Patterns of Consumption.

Artist's Statement, April 2021

Though much of the environmentally-themed work we see that deals with plastic is about disgust and guilt, my work seeks to reach people by embracing the complexity of our relationship with the material and speaking openly about it. By treating it with devotion, like the precious resource it is, I am pointing my finger at consumerism as the root of our pollution problems, while honoring a material that makes modern life efficient and comfortable. 

I collect, wash, fold and sew food wrappers into quilts that could be handed down through generations as heirlooms. I fold plastic into thousands of interlocking modular origami pieces while meditating on my wish for a solution to the plastic pollution problem. Creating beauty from a workhorse material that society undervalues and treats as disposable is an act of devotion and hope. Only when we fully appreciate how integral it is to our lives and our livelihood can we begin to change our attitudes about its value.

The Denver Post At Littleton Museum, a stunning art exhibition with a side of much-needed, trash-related guilt by Ray Mark Rinaldi

DARIA Art Magazine Patterns of Consumption by Danielle Cunningham

Talaterra Episode 107: Kalliopi Monoyios, Plastic is More Than Bags and Straws with Tania Marien

The DaVinci Pursuit Patterns of Consumption: The Complex Relationship with Plastic with Mark Kesling