Artist Statement
My lens-based media practice explores the seductive and troubling world of plastics—materials that are at once ephemeral in use and eternal in consequence. Through photography and sculpture, I focus on single-use plastics, found plastic waste, and thrifted plastics, examining their vibrant colors, glossy surfaces, and transient purposes. I am drawn to the artificial beauty of these objects: their neon palettes, transparent textures, naturally weathered finishes, and manufactured symmetry offer an aesthetic language that is both playful and insidious.
Recycling, an action that seems futile, is also part of this exploration. My works investigate how systems of reuse are mediated through design, commerce, and consumer fantasy. I’m interested in the aesthetics of recycling—the didactics, the symbols, the sorting—as much as in its failures.
Ultimately, my practice is a dialogue between form and function, image and aftermath. By emphasizing the color, pattern, and visual allure of plastic waste, I offer an entry point into a deeper inquiry: what is our relationship to disposability, and how might seeing more clearly reshape our habits, our systems, and our sense of responsibility?
Plastics are a paradox of our time—designed to be discarded, yet impossible to truly throw “away.” This notion of “away” forms a philosophical backbone of my work. Where does waste go once it’s out of sight? Who sees it, touches it, lives among it? By framing plastics within constructed compositions or observed urban environments, I seek to destabilize their invisibility and invite viewers to reckon with their persistent presence.
