Our Lady of Plastic

LOUISE HILL

Our Lady of Plastic, 2026

fine art print 

open edition A3

255 x 380 mm image size

290 x 420 mm paper size

$150 unframed

$270 black or white box frame no mat

$330 black or white box frame with mat

signed and titled edition of 20 - A2

370 x 540 mm image size

430 x 630 mm paper size

$380 unframed

$520 -  black or white box frame no mat

$590  - black or white box frame with mat

signed and titled edition of 20 - A1

540 x 780 mm image size

590 x 840 mm paper size

$800 -  black or white box frame no mat

$890  - black or white box frame with mat

Our Lady of Plastic reimagines the Virgin Mary as a contemporary icon for a world saturated in synthetic materials. Surrounded by a sea of plastic and a profusion of vivid flowers, she holds her exposed heart as both a symbol of compassion and a reminder of our collective vulnerability.

The flowers are not simply representations: they are brooches I have made from discarded plastic. By transforming waste into objects of adornment, I explore the shifting boundaries between the precious and the disposable, the sacred and the everyday. Materials routinely dismissed as rubbish become offerings, carrying new associations with beauty, care and value.

Drawing on religious iconography, popular culture and the visual language of devotional imagery, my work uses humour, excess and vivid colour to examine the meanings we attach to objects and materials. The Virgin becomes an unlikely patron saint of the Anthropocene: a figure through whom reverence, consumption and environmental consequence converge. 

My wider practice as a contemporary jeweller explores materiality, adornment and the cultural values embedded in the things we make, wear and discard. Working with found objects and unconventional materials, I am interested in how transformation can challenge established hierarchies of value and reveal new possibilities for overlooked matter.

 Through Our Lady of Plastic, I invite viewers to consider what we worship, what we discard, and what we choose to care for. The work offers no simple redemption; instead, it holds beauty and unease together, asking whether something new can emerge from the materials and contradictions of contemporary life.