Lily Capano

All plastics have a number and can be categorised or ordered in one way or another; a stark linear juxtaposition to the very apparent, very unpleasant problem this system aims to reduce - waste. With the aim of extracting a contrastingly pleasing aesthetic value from such materials, I focused on representing them in a precise, clinical manner, with attention to artificial composition, lighting and presentation – a parallel to the very nature of plasticity as a material property. The resulting photographs of ordered objects and tiny artifact-like books rely on the principle of repetition, driving home the concept of mass production and the commonplace of plastic waste in our world. Packets and products have been glamourised, normalised and beaten in place into regular living almost to the extent of something as customary as books have. Perhaps our desire to categorise acts as an innate coping mechanism, tackling an essentially irreversible global conundrum in a more visual and cognitively digestible way. Therefore, I have organised even the most bizarre, futile biproducts of our wasteland planet, in an effective campaign for change.