The Petroleum Manga (2012)
50 banners, book
Solvent ink on Tyvek
10 ‘ x 54”
Research: Miriam Simun
Drawing assistance: Ellen Anne Burtner
Printing: Vista CRC Lab, NY
Originally, the Japanese word manga was used to refer to “whimsical
drawings” or picture books. The Petroleum Manga, a “picture
book” about oil, is inspired by Hokusai’s thirteen volume set of manga. It depicts everything
from trees to demons, squirrels to shingles. Each Petroleum Manga banner represents items
organized by a specific petrochemical: PET, PVC, HDPE, PMMA, polystyrene, polyurethane, ammonia, nylon,
paraffin and more. These heroic banner-size drawings on Tyvek divide up the gallery space into a
labrynthine maze with images of oil-derived products such as garbage bags, water guns, rubber chickens,
taxidermy forms, food containers, credit cards, medical supplies, and flip flops.
Installation at Diverseworks, 2012. Photo: Mark Francis
Installation at bitforms gallery, 2013. Photo: John Berens
Installation at Diverseworks, 2012. Photo: Mark Francis
Installation at Diverseworks, 2012. Photo: Paul Hester
From the start, the project had been imagined as a book inspired by the original
multi-volume Hokusai Manga. The Petroleum
Manga, a collection of Zurkow's drawings, in collaboration with 39 writers including poets,
scientists,and theorists, was published by Punctum Books in 2014.
In 2017, Zurkow created a video presentation, with novelist Ruth Ozeki and poet Maureen McLane
reading their contributions, as part of the online conference, The Lives and
Afterlives of Plastics (PERC, University of New Zealand).
The banners:
 
 
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