Untitled, Simon Backewich, 2020
For this project I initially wanted to work on a plastic installation but considering my subject matter and the photo based requirements, the result turned out to be a staged photo. The action in this photo is 100 feet of rolled plastic being pushed out of the window from a house. Household plastics are intertwined with our lives on a personal and mass scale. I was interested in shooting a photo that represents how household plastics are ingrained into our lifestyle and how our overuse of these particular plastics might ultimately lead to the deterioration of life on our planet. For me, plastic as a material symbolizes our lifestyles and suggests a feeling of unease. This unease comes from the trajectory we are on as a result of our inability to understand our lifestyle's dangers. I'm interested in bringing attention to the relationship between plastic and our homes and our inability to understand its threats. The plastic in this photo symbolizes our lifestyles in an climactic explosive state. The plastic bursts from the house to characterize a moment where our plastic oriented lifestyles culminate into catastrophe.