Whilst working in Russia in 2008-09, Filipsson became concerned with how humankind’s dependence on the bi-products of petroleum transforms and conditions our natural and social environment. At this point Filipsson made a study in watercolour showing evidence of petrol pollution seeping into Moscow’s Yauza River from a congested motorway that cuts through the city centre. This pollution as with all pollution is compounded through our own repeated, cumulative actions. This inspired a series of abstract paintings entitled: What Snow Conceals Thaw Reveals. These seemingly intimate details belie the ubiquity and scale of the issue of pollution the artist wanted to address and investigate. As a continuation and variation of this idea, Ex Uno, Plures, addresses human’s global dependence on plastic directly. The title Ex Uno, Plures translates as: Out of One, Many. This slogan derives from the Great Seal of the United States. Here, a Bald Eagle holds a banner in its beak, on which is written the text: E Pluribus Unum, translating as Out of Many, One. This text and accompanying imagery symbolise the solidarity of America’s first thirteen States thus forming one nation at the end of the 18th Century. Ex Uno, Plures (Out of One, Many) is a play on the slogan of the Great Seal, now a symbol of American world dominance and the ensuing globalisation and its multiplicity of connotations in the early part of the 21st Century. This symbolic figure of thirteen states has been adopted by Filipsson in this project and now represents thirteen world Nations inadvertently bound by the universal language of every day consumer branding, stemming from the continuous progression and homogenising effect of free market economic models worldwide. Initially Filipsson collected L’Oreal shampoo bottles from different countries. This was achieved during her own international travels, those of friends as well as through contacts generated world wide agreeing to cooperate and send bottles from their own countries of origin. The practicality of this process was made possible by quick and efficient communication technology between people and efficient and affordable international courier and postal delivery systems. This act itself demonstrates how accustomed we have become to these facilities. As a way of articulating this theme, a theme so embedded in to our everyday consumer driven lives, the project examines ancient artefacts originating from specific nations. Filipsson has chosen to paint hybrid visual representations from already constructed historical artefacts and vessels from each particular nation. By alluding to the diversity, depth and complex nature of each nation’s cultural inheritance, Ex Uno, Plures is pointing at the potential loss of delicately poised cultural idiosyncrasies through the continual encroachment, allure and convenience of consumer culture. January 2011, Querétaro, Mexico