RubberWare
Developed from the earlier Vessels series, RubberWare uses original vintage Tupperware containers as forming moulds for hand-extruded silicone sealant. Layers of silicone accumulate against the mould surfaces, producing flexible, translucent vessels that retain the proportions of their domestic counterparts while acquiring a distinctly different material character.
Removed from their moulds, the individual vessels can be stacked and restacked in varying configurations, creating temporary sculptural arrangements. Their surfaces and translucency suggest materials such as alabaster and jade, while the familiar domestic forms acquire associations with ceremonial vessels and objects of display. The series remains in development.
Rubberware (midi stack)
Silicone sealant, 2024
32cm w x 18cm d x 35cm h
RubberWare (mini stack)
Silicone sealant, 2024
11cm w x 11cm d x 18cm h
Tupperware: material and social history
Amateur inventor Earl Silas Tupper invented Tupperware in the US in 1942 using refined polyethylene. Initially, it failed to impress housewives despite praise from magazines who described it as “Fine Art for 39 Cents”.
In the early 1950s, it was saved by an American housewife Brownie Wise who introduced the Tupperware party; where women gathered in a hostess's home for an evening based loosely on product demonstrations.
By 1951, Tupper withdrew Tupperware from retail stores, making parties the exclusive distribution method. Wise became vice president, leading a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
Tupperware parties became a cultural hallmark of postwar America, embodying both thrift and abundance. Its success lay in its social appeal and the opportunity it provided for women to earn an income when workplace access was limited.
After a gradual decline over time, it finally filed for liquidation late 2024.
(Photo credits: Archive Photos / Brownie Wise Papers / Archives Center / National Museum of American History / Smithsonian Institution / text based on Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America by Alison J. Clarke).