An old fashioned internet shrine for service expressed through disposable items, mostly bags.
@serviceappreciation was a project I started around 2018, after several years of hoarding/collecting/irrationally holding on to single-use plastic bags. I’m certainly not the only person out there with a fondness for items intended to be throw-away consumer waste—yet once I started the project, I was surprised at its warm reception, almost as if people were waiting for someone to publicly recognize these hardworking bags!
A friend of mine managed to convince myself and the Paradise Restaurant at Front and Girard to make an art show out of it, and so I brought my collection to the cozy diner right off the El. A week or so later, I was informed that the customers kept asking why there were plastic bags all over the walls, the staff got worn down from explaining it was supposed to be art, and so the bags were taken down. Honestly, I love that this happened. Looking back, I would’ve maybe laminated the bags, added commentary, whatever. But how it went down is how it went down.
@serviceappreciation wasn’t just a collection of photographs, either. I made sure to write a small poetic something for every bag, carefully categorizing them with hashtags like #bag_smiley #bag_thankyou #bag_niceday and so on. Just recounting this here, I’m certain to make this into a book or zine. For now, since the archive is still up, you can read the entries for yourself.
There is nothing special about a plastic bag.
They get used. They rip. They are thrown out.
Not meant to last
Caught in trees
Found alongside the other trash on the ground
Stuffed in a bag with dozens of others like it
And plastic is not good for the environment,
so
More and more places are starting to ban them.
🏁🏁🏁 1 ~ This will become an archive of plastic bags, one by one.
🏁🏁🏁 Probably, you’ll be familiar with them. Some might be rare.
Some say Thank You. Some smile. Some boast about their business.
Nylon fabric bags don’t seem to be any less disposable, and they don’t say Thank You either.
🏁🏁🏁 2 ~ Share your own photos of plastic bags + your thoughts about what service means to you.
🏁🏁🏁 I’ll post them here. 🍳 signed, @cyborgmemoirs
Thank you.
“In the Kamigata area, they have a sort of tiered lunchbox they use for a single day when flower viewing. Upon returning, they throw them away, trampling them underfoot. The end is important in all things.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai