This three-volume set catalogs the work of Dan Peterman, on exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), from June 26 to September 12, 2004. Peterman works with ideas about recycling systems and recycled materials to reveal how we interact with nature and technology.
 
Plastic Economies presents five new installations, including a "cheese finishing" work and a project involving discarded wood chipped into "carbon banks"--the artist's term for how carbon dioxide stored within wood is released into the atmosphere as fossil fuels burn or decay.
 
Peterman will also launch a project on the MCA plaza, Standard Kiosk (Chicago), for which he'll build three prototypes of simple shed structures--a bicycle repair shop, a marketplace/classroom kiosk, and a garden shed--using standard waste containers. After the exhibition, they will be relocated to Chicago's Humboldt Park.
 
Earlier projects, including Chicago Compost Shelter (1988), in which a Volkswagen van was buried with compost to provide a warm place for the homeless, and Eau Claire (1988), a homemade "still" that distilled pure water out of Dr Pepper soda pop, are presented in an interactive display along with artifacts remaining from these projects.
 
This catalog includes essays by German critic Raimar Stange, MCA curator Lynne Warren, and writer-artist Gregory Sholette along with a catalog of Peterman's body of work and excerpts from an interview with the artist.
 

Dan Peterman teaches art at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He coordinates a multifaceted facility on Chicago's Southside in a diverse range of activities, including Blackstone Bicycle Works (a youth education bike shop), The Baffler magazine, the Urban Farm Project, Big Fish Furniture, and Monk Parakeet (a visiting artist and artist project program). His recent public art projects include Running Table, a hundred-foot-long picnic table made of post-consumer plastics designed for Chicago's Grant Park, and Accessories to an Event (Plaza), for the MCA. Lynne Warren is Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and organizer of the Peterman exhibition. Robert Fitzpatrick is Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.