Formosa Fire (Bridge)
Timothy Gonchoroff (McAllen, TX)
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), 7” H x 11” W x .25” D
Artwork:
This piece portrays the aftermath a fire at the Formosa Plastics factory in Point Comfort, TX in 2005. The incident exposed the nearby community to Polyvinyl Chloride, a highly toxic form of plastic that caught fire in the factory and then burned throughout the area, exposing the residents to highly toxic fumes with residual effects that are still being researched. This piece specifically uses Polyvinyl Chloride fragments from recycled advertising banners to recreate images from safety reports and surveillance images from the incident. This piece is part of a series meant to highlight the corporate and regulatory oversight of the plastics industry and how it has impacted the health of working class residents and ecology living near the factories and refineries.
Artist Statement:
This series investigates the invisible burden borne by working-class communities living in proximity to PVC and plastics manufacturing infrastructure. Using fragments of recycled vinyl advertising banners—material already spent in service of consumption—the work reconstructs documentary imagery: safety reports, surveillance photographs, aerial views of industrial incident sites. Fragments of recycled PVC advertising banners become both medium and evidence, reconstructing the visual record of communities that absorbed what industry discarded.