Zurkow – Death by Hydrocarbon
"Immortal Plastics" is part of a larger body of work by Marina Zurkow entitled "Necrocracy" (necro = dead, ocracy = governemnt). It consists of animations, prints, sculptures, a book, and food tasting events all geared to induce consumers to confront their personal relationships with hydrocarbons. 
One end of the geological time scale is represented by hydrocarbon chains, the base material for all plastics. Their implicit role in fouling our environment is conveyed through Zurkow’s animated depiction of a hydrocarbon molecule as an ominous black globule.There is nothing endearing about these animated figures. A learing smile appears on their goulish faces. First there is one. Then two become linked. Then more and more and more. They multiply until they completely obscure the background. Viewers are left to ponder this total onslaught of bad energy!
The virtual becomes assertively real in a ‘performance’ component of this series. Zurkow collaborated with the artist Sarah Rothenberg to establish an Immortal Plastics’ (IP) Assessment Service. Visitors to the Ideas City festival in Manhattan last Saturday were invited to determine the extent of their relationship with hydrocarbons by presenting their belongings to Zurkow and Rothberg. Both trained as IP Assessors. They offer people an on-site petrochemical analysis of their belongings. Participants leave with more than an itemized account of their complicity in the havoc wreaked upon the planet by humanity’s wanton consumption of fossil-fuel. Tangible evidence takes the form of a jar of plastic regrind, an indicator of the total weight of petrochemicals and plastics in their personal belongings. The physical weight is augmented by the psychological weight contributed by the realization that their acts are a product of the primeval past, currently encompass the entirety of the planet, and this effect will ricochet throughout the future.