Art Space curator Bronwen Garner said the Wanton, Wild and Unimagined exhibition by Townville-based artist Alison McDonald held a serious message.

“We thought it would be a playful and accessible exhibition for families and people in Wodonga,” she said.

“We especially like the questions Alison McDonald is asking through her work. 

“It’s very important, plastics are a huge problem in the world today – what do we do with the bottles and plastics we collect every day from the things we eat and drink?”

The exhibit opens today and McDonald will visit Wodonga on November 2 for Fridays on My Mind. 

She said the works were created by manipulating plastic bottles and collecting thousands of lids to make creations inspired by plants, the ocean and John Wyndham’s book The Day of the Triffids. 

“Humans have long had a love affair with plastic, believing it to be the answer to our eco-prayers,” McDonald said.

“My artworks reuse plastic materials in an attempt to raise questions about the relationship we have with plastic, and about its supposed sustainability."

Ms Garner said the different techniques McDonald used were fascinating, especially how plastic bottles were made to look like precious metals and cascading bottle caps looked like they were invading the gallery space. 

Wodonga councillor Kat Bennett said it was an important exhibition for the city to host, especially in the lead up to November’s Albury-Wodonga Sustainable Living Festival.

She said everyone needed to question and do more about the harmful impact plastic was having on the environment. 

“It’s about the nature of humans and this obsession with consuming stuff, particularly around plastics,” she said. 

“We have that interesting culture of buying things and not really thinking where does it go after us?

“We can be putting things in the yellow bin but even then, where is the stuff going?

“We are getting better not just at putting stuff in the yellow bin but at thinking about what we’re buying and making better consumer decisions.”

Cr Bennett said while colourful and fun the exhibition was confronting, especially for children, when they realised all the bottle caps came from the shore, and if they hadn’t been picked up for the artwork they would be floating in the ocean. 

The exhibit runs from October 19 to November 24.