The relationship between humans and the environment is a strained one, where we constantly pollute and disrupt the balance of nature with the things that we start but not finish. And so the lasting impact we have upon the environment is an important responsibility that we- as humans and collectively as mankind- have not taken seriously into consideration how we live and inhabit the Earth, and specifically in each environment that we all live in. In response to my previous work (Assessment 1) and also the research and experiments that I have conducted, this work explores the life of rubbish after it has fulfilled its role in our lives and the shift to uselessness and chaos that it causes in the environment.
Following the feedback and comments from Assessment 1, I first wanted to explore how we are in a commercialised society where we pay for things, such as bottled water, that are designed for convenience and fixates on money. I further brainstormed around the notion of paying for ephemeral things, and also imitations of natural things, such as fake grass/plants and fake eggs, that continue to advocate laziness and convenience in our lives and the meaningless chase for money. And on this journey of researching, I also stumbled upon fake Japanese display foods which are fascinating, but from there, I got stuck with how I could incorporate commercialism into my making.
This was the first challenge that I faced conceptually but in returning to the idea that humans are part of the destruction of the environment through our carelessness in dealing with our waste, it directed and focused my research and making for this work. With just a quick search, I found approximate decomposition times of various common day products that we encounter, some of which are quite surprising. The length of time for something to decompose actually takes longer than one would expect, and even with these approximate dates, the environment that the waste is in also affects whether something will decompose or fossilise. From there various ideas of using these numbers came: from mapping to using watercolours, and finally, inspired by a class activity using drawing techniques, I drew a small number of sketches that are coincidentally and accidentally aligned with the decomposition research.
The first sketches were done in paper and pencil as an experiment on whether the drawing techniques will actually work with the images that I had chosen. When the initial sketches were completed, an idea of layering them and seeing the step by step transition from clear and detailed drawings to rough sketches was developed. The interaction between the sketches was something that I had wanted to emphasise and finding the right layering material that would work well was a challenge. Initially, I had wanted to use the acetate sheets that overhead projectors used- but being able to see through all the layers distracted from the individual ‘stages’ of decomposition that needed to be clear. I then found a very lightweight paper called bond paper (50gsm) that worked well with Sharpie markers and created the desired effect with layering.
The completed set of sketches actually accumulated to more than what I had in mind, so in presenting them, I had wanted to make individual booklets for each set of drawings. But with the time frame and labour involved, another idea of making a concertina booklet that would stretch out like a timeline seemed to work better. All the drawings are arranged according to the estimated time that it would take the object to decompose and the red thread that ties, labels the length of time for decomposition and weaves between the drawings represent the life of these objects and the seemingly eternal time that they will exist for.
The things that I would improve on for future works is the filming of the making process because for this work, I was not very technologically adept, many of the videos were actually out of focus. But this was something to learn from experience, so hopefully there will be improvements for next time. And in saying that- the blur of the videos that only allows the audience to make out vague shapes of what was being drawn also creates an interesting effect in the representation of the decomposition process.
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