Tüti

Plastic bags have had a bad rep for some time, primarily for environmental reasons. However, the central character in Dominic Wendland’s comic grotesque Tüti is such a heinous villain that all the environmental sins of its kind appear harmless by comparison. Blown to and fro by the wind, the white plastic being with the smiley face bobs through one of the most original German comic narratives of recent times, becoming entangled with a rebellious band of gangsters, engaging in amorous encounters, taking the lives of several people in bizarre fashion, and briefly being venerated as an absolutist ruler. Throughout all of this, it remains a mystery to the end which of Tüti’s actions are pure chance, and which are human projections – and to what extent this plastic bag really does have the personality that people ascribe to it. Wendland tells the story in concise images that successfully exploit the absurdity of the premise on a visual level too.