Through the use of sculpture, video and sound installation, my practice encourages engagement with plastic materiality and physicality in relation to the rising threat of environmental degradation due to plastic pollution. Throughout, my practice examines the inherent unnatural qualities of plastic, and encourages examination of consumption habits and environmental narratives to reflect on our planets present and possible future.

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I was immediately inspired by artist H. G Arunkumar and his installation ‘Droppings and the Dam’, an engulfing sculpture made out of found bottle caps. As such, I was inspired to create my piece, ‘Glacial Plastic, in which I wanted to mimic Arunkumar’s ability to create a sculpture one could use as a shelter or prop. ‘Glacial Plastic’ allowed me to explore man-made materials in relation to plastic packaging, (an increasing polluter of the natural world), and as such I wanted to almost reclaim the mimicked natural landscape using this material. To increase sustainability of my work, I created ‘Glacial Sustainability’, a documentary that filmed the recycling process of materials used in ‘Glacial Plastic’. This piece of process art further engaged in material exploration, as the physical labour of cleaning the plastic and the accompanying sounds created a piece which emphasised the hard work one must do to be sustainable. Ultimately, I reused the materials in ‘Countdown to Planet Plastica’, in which the bottles and plastic sheets have been carefully washed clean of paint.

 

To further explore the materiality of plastic materials using sound I created ‘Enclosed Sound’, in which I manipulated various items of plastic household waste, including bottles and bubble wrap, to engulf the viewer in the sounds of single-use plastics. As a result, ‘Enclosed’ was created using found plastic materials, including hula hoops and plastic bags. This piece was inspired by monoliths and obelisks, in which the plastic has overtaken traditional building materials and completely engulfed the audience in materials that they could touch and explore physically. ‘Enclosed’ was partially inspired by Cildo Meireles’s ‘Babel’, as the towering, monolith structure intentionally intimidated and confused the audience with its imposing presence and accompanying sounds. ‘Enclosed’s combination of physical structure and sound piece allowed for total immersion in a world of plastic, and encouraged the audience to understand and question pre-existing narratives around plastic consumption and over-reliance on the man-made.

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My engagement in the Theft by Finding Workshop introduced me to the possibility of 3D scan technology, in which I scanned part of ‘Glacial Plastic’ to capture the material’s unique texture. The accompanying video piece allowed for engagement with the material virtually, rather than physically. The combination of 3D scanning and sound allowed for disconnection from and distortion of common household objects to reveal their unnatural components and our desensitisation to their materiality, in an almost clinical setting. This technique was later used in ‘Countdown to Planet Plastica’, to emphasise the unnatural, man-made materiality of everyday objects in a future where they are used to build monuments.

  

Contextually, ‘The Big Plastic Count’ was brought to my attention by Greenpeace, and encouraged the counting of household plastic waste for one week. As a result, I started to record the amount of plastic I was using in my work. This movement, which itself aimed to increase awareness of plastic consumption, encouraged the creation of my own exhibition I hosted in my outdoor space. ‘Planet Plastica: A Domestic Exhibition’ allowed for experimentation with staging, in which I chose to feature, ‘Hanging Baggage’ and ‘Nature: Hang on in There!’ Cycling back to ideas regarding monoliths and ancient building materials, these sculptures act as modern obelisks to a planet deprived of natural materials. Through exhibiting these ideas outside in a domestic back garden, the contrast between material and setting encourages reflection on environmental degradation and the potential future of our planet.

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These ideas cumulate in my final exhibition, ‘Countdown to Planet Plastica’. This installation piece will include monolith-like plastic sculptures, as well as sound and video pieces that emphasise the immediate nature of plastic pollution and our planet’s possible future. Using counting as a motif to encourage urgency and anticipation in the viewer, the video and sound pieces will capture plastic materiality via the uncomfortable intimacy of sound, and the clinical detachment of 3D scanning. The tall, monolith-like structures will be reminiscent of ancient monument structures made from natural materials, and designed to encourage claustrophobia in the viewer, to further emphasise the immediate nature of plastic pollution.

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Ultimately, my practice encourages engagement in materiality, with a focus on environmental degradation as a result of plastic pollution. Through the use of sound, video and sculptural installations, my work seeks to engulf the audience in the potential horror of a planet chocked by plastic, and our own concerning desensitisation.