From Kelvingrove and the GoMA to the Hunterian, Glasgow is home to a fantastic array of museums that allow visitors and locals alike to enjoy one of the richest and most varied collections in Europe.
And now we can add a new, peculiar place to the extensive city list - in the form of a museum dedicated to plastic bags.
The brainchild of Glasgow artist Katrina Cobain, the online museum focuses on single use carrier bags dating from as early as the 1970s to present day bags, and is dedicated to collecting and archiving the small pieces of social history as single use plastic carrier bags begin to disappear.
We spoke to the 24-year-old to find out a little bit more about the museum and the inspiration behind it:
Tell us a little about the Plastic Bag Museum...
"The Plastic Bag Museum is an online museum dedicated to collecting and archiving plastic bags for the public to view online, based in Glasgow. The project went online in May during the initial lockdown, with a full collection to view on our website, as well as beginning an Instagram.
"The Plastic Bag Museum seeks to appreciate plastic bags for their design quality and what they can tell us about social history, whilst placing them firmly in the past due to sustainability concerns and their environmental impact".
What inspired you to launch the museum?
"The inspiration for the plastic bag museum came from thinking about landfill sites and the lifetime of a plastic bag. I was thinking a lot about how Egyptian objects give us an insight into a previous civilisation, and how the landfill sites of today could end up being the archaeological digs of the future.
"With plastic taking so long to break down, it could end up that plastic bags and the vastness of their consumption could be something telling about us to humans of the future. With this in mind, I began to collect plastic bags which I found interesting, and discovered they can tell us a lot about recent history. With plastic bags currently disappearing from our everyday lives, it is interesting to collect them now and view them as historical objects.
"Plastic bags go hand in hand with consumerism, and can be quite revealing about a society’s habits, acting as documents for social history. They illustrate everything from changes in graphic design through the ages, right through to the rise and fall of tobacco use.
"Certain editions of plastic bags have been produced around key events such as the millennium, which shows how prevalent their use once was, that special editions of carrier bags would be released by businesses to celebrate certain moments".
What are the most prized bags in your collection?
"There are such a wide variety of bags in the collection, I personally love the Woolworths bags as they are very nostalgic, reminding me of buying pic and mix and CDs as a kid. I also love some of the more unique bags, like the 1981 Royal Wedding bags and a bag from the USSR dated 1985".
Are you planning on open a physical museum at some point in the future?
"Given the current circumstances of the ongoing pandemic, a physical exhibition seems quite far off, but it is something I would absolutely love to do. It does feel like a bit of a dream at the minute, but hopefully something achievable in the future!"
And would you encourage Glaswegians to have a rummage to see if they might have some to donate?
"Absolutely! There have been some great donations already of some fantastic bags, local to Glasgow and from further afield. I would be so grateful for anyone who gets in touch with something they think would be interesting, we would love to see it all."
For more info on the museum, visit the website HERE
