GLAD is a collection of six unconventional portraits presented as a set of A1 prints.
The works discuss the relationship between humans and ecology with imagery that suggests contemporary relationships between humans and our environment are tightly woven together and ultimately, inseparable. However, this bond between humans and their ecology is evidently one-sided, with the human species reaping the rewards of our consumerist lifestyle at the expense of the environment.
GLAD utilises plastic as a metaphor for the imbalance in the human and ecology relationship.
The implications of consumerism in the relationship between humans and ecology are highly evident in the value, production, and wastage of common plastics. Common plastics or Polyethylene were hailed as a wonder material following its widespread use during world war two. After its success in war, plastic entered commercial production where it was hailed as a material for protecting the environment by evading the need to hunt Elephants for their tusks in the production of billiard balls and piano keys. Plastics snowballed into global mass production and eventually, concerns were raised in the 1960’s when plastic waste was first publicly observed in our oceans and waterways. Despite a correlating rise in mistrust and health concerns, plastic production has continued to rise as more and more elements of our daily lives are replaced or improved by plastic.
The problem with common plastics is their disposability and longevity. An item composed of a common plastic will take, on average 450 years to degrade. Even before degradation plastics often break into small and difficult to manage pieces capable of polluting waterways and being mistaken as food by wildlife. This is perhaps the most concerning consequence of our obsession with plastics within our relationship with ecology. In 2009 photographer Chris Jordan began capturing photographs of dead baby albatrosses on the remote Midway Atoll as a part of the project ‘Midway: Message from the Gyre.’ In this series of works, the humans were finally presented damning evidence of the consequence of our plastic obsession. Jordan’s confronting works displayed the corpses of baby birds killed by accidentally being fed lethal quantities of plastic mistaken as food by their parents. In Jordan’s work, we get to view the unbalanced relationship between humans and ecology through the literal death of ecology at the hands of human influence.
It is important to recognise that in the discussion of the human and ecology relationship that humans exist as an element of their ecology and as a result the influence of our own plastic obsession we are as equally subject to the damages of the material as our environment. Heater Davis’ keynote ‘The Queer Futurity of Plastic’ observes this ‘leaching’ of plastic into organic matter through plastiglomerates, volcanic rocks that have had plastic fused into their composition as well as microplastics, microscopic plastics present in our water systems and food products which we actively consume without public awareness.
Plastic symbolises the core values of human’s relationship with their environment, which can be simplified to two main points. One, humans are aware of the consequences and damages our obsession with plastics has upon ecology. Two, humans are willing to sacrifice the health of ecology for the aesthetic of plastic and modern lifestyles.
GLAD reflects the complex nature of our relationship with ecology as explored above. The imagery within the work is designed not to be confronting but to spike the mind of its audience with a reminder of how commonplace we have allowed common plastics to become. Within GLAD plastic is portrayed as underwear to symbolize the dailiness of plastic in society, the seminude photos highlight the intimacy of plastic, its value to human lifestyle and its role in displacing an equilibrium between humans and ecology.
GLAD is intended to be observed for long periods of time. Its imagery has been designed to deliver its message slowly but with deep impact.
GLAD draws inspiration from works including ‘Swamp’ by Mikala Dwyer, ‘Flow’ by Alison McDonald, ‘Beautiful Trash’ by Adrian Arias, ‘Washed Up’ by Alejandro Durán amongst others.
Dwyer, M., 'Swamp', 2010.
Davis, H., 'The Queer Futurity of Plastic', [keynote], 2016, https://vimeo.com/158044006, (accessed 1 September 2017).
Seton, A., 'Washout', 2008
Plastics - A History and its Contribution to Society - 1940's, [online video], 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daDM4zeYofA, (accessed 10 September 2017).
Beautiful Trash, the history of plastic and beyond, [online video], 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GklK_L_tN3c, (accessed 11 September 2017).
Durán, A., 'Brotes (Shoots)', Washed Up, 2014.
McDonald, A., 'Flow', 2013.
