Instagram story viewer> @plastic.play> Posts

plastic play💎

@plastic.play

650

followers

562

following

playing with plastics to unlearn cultures of violence
(lessons in non-duality)
@kris.russo @krisrusso.art

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

In a talk with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, someone asked: “How do we collectively live with that invention?” He was referring to nuclear weapons, but I like to think we can ask the same question about plastics and petrochemicals…

Her response: “Like we are right this moment. We’re living with it anyway right now… now how do we live with it happily or not happily that’s something else. But we’re living with it right now. We’re living with being there… knowing that that has happened… Many many many Indigenous cultures are trying to transform through ritual and ceremony… to transform this destruction of the Earth, and so we are doing that too, this is the ritual…”

We give thanks to Indigenous communities, leaders and all beings that teach us that “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way…” in the words of Arundathi Roy.

She continues… “On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

You can find the full video on Upaya Zen Center’s YouTube channel. Title: “Zenju Earthlyn Manuel – ‘Embracing the Fullness of Emptiness’” time mark 31:40 for this particular quote.

From the description on YouTube video: “Dharma Talk with Sensei Zenju Earthlyn Manuel given at Upaya Zen Center on July 31st, 2019 Zenju asks, ‘How are we living and dying from our own inventions?’’”

The video you see here is of my artwork “Sachets,” 2019. Made with scissors, plastic bags, a bag sealer, a flourecent light and #nurdles. Nurdles are made during the oil refining process and are the raw material that synthetic plastics are made with.

My assistant for this piece was artist @omokeko - made during my residency with @arthouse_foundation

#zenjuearthlynmanuel #upayazencenter #environmentaljustice taken in Lagos Island by @plastic.play

31

11

4 years ago

This house is on fire
Plastic wycinanki
2022 by @plastic.play

15

0

2 months ago

Sage bush growing out of crack in cement with plastic water bottle beside it, June 6, 2026 by @plastic.play

5

0

4 months ago

in loving memory of the incomparable T-Shine🕊️ you can see and hear him here, playing with my artwork. “We throw up our prayers to God,” 2021.

Nobody shines like T-Shine @official.tshine_baba twale baba❣️

#plastics #wycinanie✂️ #shadowplay taken in Lagos, Nigeria by @plastic.play

16

0

8 months ago

one of my best moments of 2025 was ocean kayaking for the first time with @buyelwa and hanging out with two whales… Everything🩵

not to be hyperbolic, but one of the best moments of my life. For what it’s worth, I pray the new year brings us all more moments of reverence for this topsy-turvy thing we call life on Earth🩵

Ikhandlela by @philadlozi—song of the year! by @plastic.play

31

9

10 months ago

On Plastics, 2019

this video was made at a plastics factory in Lagos during a residency with @arthouse_foundation

#artintheageofplastics #plasticplay #videoart taken in Lagos, Nigeria by @plastic.play

19

6

10 months ago

“Little bird, what is the price of oaknuts in Guayinga?”Yesterday was the solstice. Winter solstice 2020, I made this altar in my garage: buckets, candles, clay birds, berries, acorns, plastic on cement. The altar was a map of the surrounding mountainscapes. This was my way to inhabit land, time, and history. To hold attention for the things that exceed me and often my understanding. A humble offering of my earnest confusion dedicated to my family, my ancestors, the ancestors of this land, the Tongva and Payomkawichum.

Polish solstice rituals, the Land Back movement, Buddhist ontologies and California Funk Art inform the work as tools for attention, reflection, and ritual. The globalized, ancestral, and spiritual influences structure how the work exists in time and how it interacts with history.

A monk asked Seigen, “What is the essence of Buddhism?”
Seigen said, “What is the price of rice in Ryōyô?”

#potentialhistory #ritualizedassemblage #makingthetensionofsettlerpresencevisible taken in California by @plastic.play

12

2

10 months ago

The Dreams that Dream Us🐬🐬

2021 by @plastic.play

18

0

10 months ago

Love is the way messengers from the mystery tell us things
- Rumi

#rumi #plasticmemories #stopmotion by @plastic.play

3

0

10 months ago

we are God’s plastic

from my ongoing project “post-service” (free drawings, sent through the mail)

#postcards #makeartfreeagain #outofthemudgrowsthelotus taken in Payómkawichum Land by @plastic.play

10

2

10 months ago

(don’t worry) if there’s a hell below we’re already there, 2020

exhibition-view from “acts of enclosure, Love Divine, and the muscle memory of hope” - Lagos, Nigeria 2021 - dedicated to the memory of one of my great inspirations in this life @picturekodak

the title is paraphrased from the song “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go” by Curtis Mayfield

#griefislove #loveisdivine #plasticplay by @plastic.play

17

0

a year ago

Mass-produced craft tools of American material culture; crayons, markers, glue sticks, construction paper, scissors; are arranged in woven baskets on white cotton tablecloths. Visitors are invited to make postcards, write love letters, and/or exchange beaded friendship bracelets. The setup contrasts what’s commonplace in 21st century American life with what we associate with traditional craft forms, exploring memory, erasure and the blurry line between craft and contemporary art.

I ask: what counts as art? Where does it happen? How does care move through (and sometimes despite) timelines? Part offering. Part play. Part archive.

Set in Sonoma, California, a place layered with (relatively recent) histories of European settlement and agriculture, this event documents present-day American material culture through the gestures it invites.

Thank you to Samantha @film__sam sam , Cat @huntergatherersf , @abbotspassage, @gundlach_bundschu and my loving mama who made this possible♾️

“The Post Service”, a site-specific participatory art installation/assemblage, July 2025

#frontiermelancholiaintechnicolor #plasticplay #artasoffering taken in Sonoma, California by @plastic.play

48

13

a year ago