These works are the result of my observations and reflections over the past several years on the issue of plastic. The series of photo portraits, titledNew Romantic, examines the way in which plastic is used in the local culture of in the place I live; Yogyakarta. 

In Yogyakarta, like in many other small cities in central Java, wedding ceremonies are a central feature of traditional cultural practices. Often, when people don’t have enough money to hold an ‘ideal’ wedding, they will find cheap and thrifty ways to hold a ceremony. One inventive way to afford the high cost of a wedding is to use fake flowers to trim a bridal gown, in place of natural ones which are more expensive.  

In this fusion of local culture and modern global technology, plastic – a modern human technology that will last for eternity – has been adapted into traditional local culture passed down through generations of ancestors, traditional practices that occurred long before the advent of plastic.

New Romanticism, an English pop-culture movement that started around 1979, has had, and continues to have, a significant influence on young people’s lifestyles, music, fine arts, performance arts and fashion. Therefore, I feel New Romantic is a suitable title as continuing local culture is the romanticism of the modern era, and plastic is considered a symbol of modernity.