T.W. Pilar | Pilar Studios | 2023
Hyperobjects examines industrial plastic as both material and environmental condition, using heat, tension, and structural framing to transform commercially manufactured surfaces into large-scale sculptural forms. Constructed primarily from unused black plastic shopping bags and steel, the works investigate relationships between consumer
infrastructure, ecological accumulation, and material permanence.
The exhibition introduced a series of quilted and tension-based plastic systems that would later become foundational to Pilar Studios’ material language. Through processes of heating, stretching, compression, and preservation, the plastic surfaces were altered into textured
structures that referenced geological formations, erosion patterns, and organic surface texture.
Steel framing systems were incorporated as both structural support and visual infrastructure, establishing an industrial vocabulary that continues throughout the studio’s later projects.
Hyperobjects also marked the early development of Pilar Studios’ ongoing research into formative conditions - heat, pressure, weight, movement, exposure, and preservation - as forces that shape both natural and manufactured environments. The project positioned industrial byproducts not as symbolic stand-ins for ecological collapse, but as active material records embedded within contemporary systems of production and consumption.
Selected Publications
Hyperobjects has been referenced in coverage and reporting by:
Jezebel Magazine — Inside T.W. Pilar’s Vision: Art, Design & Community
WABE — Artist Pilar Invites Viewers to Discuss Overconsumption, Materialism and Waste in
New Exhibit “Hyperobjects”
ArtsATL — Cullum’s Notebook: The Beauty in Fungi, Plastic Bags, Viking Ships and Trees