The Suffocation of Avarice examines the Anthropocene
through the everyday, a simple moment in time, a dinner table set for a meal. This
work asks us to consider the consequences of consumerism and how the impact of
plastic has invaded our lives and yet can remain inconspicuous.
Martini glasses reflect the celebration of the 1950s,
where our inventiveness surrounding plastic for the everyday consumer had
little comprehension of the cumulative effect it would have globally over the
next 70 years.
In smothering this everyday scene in builders’ plastic,
the suffocation of the invisible becomes more tangible. This plastic comments
on the human obsession with land transformation and building; driven by desire
and greed, we are ultimately proud of our ability to transform locations into
something more ‘habitable’; the builder’s plastic, a nemesis
to this act of destructive transformation.
Hidden under the table lay ceramics, representing
threatened species of corals covered with the names of plastic items that leach
toxic chemicals into the oceans and blanket their world. As the sound of melting
and dripping water fills the space, the damp smell of the chamber and sandstone
walls work together to remind us of our Utopian ideal. Whilst this artwork suggests
abundance. The image of water flowing back up the plastic gives the viewer a
true sense of our impact; our oceans and coastal areas, which continue to be
catastrophic, altered forever by our selective environmental blindness and current
political inaction.
