Matter Out of Place

Matter Out Of Place investigates different methods of painting with plastic, including large tapestries, smaller works with packaging, plastic ‘technofossils’ and contrasting framed works. This body of work was presented at the graduation exhibition at Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2022.

Matter Out Of Place speaks to the materiality of plastic and how it has begun to slip under people's skin. These works interrogate  ways that the landscape is increasingly plasticised and man-made; this is articulated through an intimate process of layering, painting and ironing plastic packaging to construct dynamic, colourful tapestries.

The plastic that is all found. Big pieces of plastic are unearthed from the local neighbourhood skip, while other scraps of plastic are saved in recycling bins or by various family members. Or, perhaps, a purple muesli packet is foundduring a walk: it is tucked into a coat pocket and finds its way to the studio desk.

Plastic packaging is an archive of many lives. During its long life, it has carried many objects and has been touched by many hands. Plastic is the tangible stain of consumption, and of what it leaves behind. After being used once, this type of plastic is often considered, as Mary Douglas describes, ‘matter out of place’ (2003). While they can be thrown away - tossed in a landfill, hooked onto barbed wire fences or dangling from a tree - these bags refuse to be forgotten. By choosing plastic, one chooses to ‘stay with the trouble’ and lean into this discomfort.

This body of work entangles people with the trouble of plastic. Plastic packaging becomes a formative agent with which one can paint, compose, and, in a larger sense, ‘become’ (Haraway, 2016). Through this process, plastic - remnants of the current era, human consumption and waste - become a language to adequately discuss this Matter Out of Place.