In My Obsession, one creative person reveals their most prized collection.
Sara Cwynar, 39, has a deep reverence for the kinds of objects usually found in a grandmother’s basement. Best known for making collagelike videos and photographs that capture the sensory overload of the internet age, the artist, perhaps counterintuitively, has spent six years building a collection of dated-looking cups and gravy boats in shades of mustard, pink and turquoise. Her cluttered studio in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood is never without a crate of plastic midcentury American tableware. Made from melamine, a mass-produced plastic, these objects were marketed to housewives in the ’50s for their indestructibility (which Cwynar has found not to be one of their characteristics: A pile of them shatters on the ground in her 2017 video “Rose Gold”).
For the Canadian-born artist, whose latest show, “Baby Blue Benzo” at 52 Walker in New York (through Dec. 21), includes a video installation and photographs that investigate American car culture, the tableware epitomizes the optimism of the mid-20th century, as well as our timeless drive to consume. “They contain so much meaning,” says Cwynar. “Hope, or a lack of place to put your hope.”
The collection: “American midcentury plastic tableware.”
Number of pieces in the collection: “About 400.”
First purchase: “I saw one in a thrift store in 2012. I immediately went back to my studio and bought 100 on eBay. I loved the gross, fake colors. No other material could hold color in that way.”
Most expensive: “In my I-need-more phase, I probably paid $20.”
Least expensive: “$2 or $3.”
Weirdest: “The ones that say ‘Allied Chemical’ [a now-defunct company in the aerospace, chemical, oil and gas industries] on the bottom. Nobody would let that be printed on something you’re supposed to drink from now. There’s something kind of nice about it saying what it is. Also [sometimes] I’ll notice a cigarette smell on them. What kind of hard plastic keeps the smell of things?”
Most precious: “A mottled army green cup that I saw in 2018. I’ve used it in some photographs. It’s not [the shape] of a camping cup, so it’s just a very confusing object.”
One that got away: “You don’t have too many people trying to outbid you on plastic cups. [Sometimes] I’d be trying to get the price down [on a large set] and I would lose it, or the [seller, who was sick of negotiating] would be like, ‘I’m not talking to you anymore.’”
Other collections: “Bunches of marble grapes. I stopped [buying them] because they’re pretty expensive — like $75. Do you really need more than 20? I don’t find it fun to collect things that are considered fancy or even good design. It’s more interesting when it’s a maligned object.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Set assistant: Joseph McCaghertydancing drums slot machine
