Living with the trouble

I started my artistic research by investigating different aspects of the issues caused by plastic pollution. The notion of nowness is an important factor in my practice. Recently, just as the world was starting to change the habit of using single-use plastics and making efforts to find replacements for this material, the global COVID-19 pandemic hit us, and new forms of plastic waste inevitably became part of our everyday life. Personal protective equipment (PPE) have become necessary for surviving in these uncertain times. It is rather ironic that we are trying to avoid one problem (the COVID19 pandemic) by causing another problem: using an excessive amount of plastic and abandoning it in nature. Perhaps the next pandemic we may have to go through will be A Plastic Pandemic.

Living with the trouble focuses on our troubled age. This title is influenced by Donna Haraway’s book Staying With The Trouble. To Haraway, in order to stay with the trouble, we need to be present. It is not about being between our past and future, but about being entwined in places, times, matters and meanings. Living with the trouble is about the time that we face our troubles and spend more time to change them. 

Through still and motion images, I unfold stories about our current time and our troubles. As such, this exhibition explores our relationships as humans with single-use plastic objects through mediums such as animation and illustration. The three animated loops in this exhibition are parts of a bigger project, and each of them tackles one aspect of plastic pollution; together they create a non-narrative story. The illustrations and the photographs reflect my creative process and ideas, and each of these pieces tells a story about our troubled age. 

Click on each image to see the animation on @ayellowland’s Instagram.