Mingle is a film-based work that explores our relationships with the objects that we create; seeing these everyday (but really very complex) interactions as the crux of consumerism and its associated environmental impact.
As an artist, I remain committed to thinking through and opening up space for new interactions with materiality as a way to interrupt this cycle of consumerism.
Having found a bundle of Bunchems entangled in a wig at a local dump, I was struck by how these prickly, sticky objects managed to embed themselves into something otherwise approaching the natural (e.g. human hair). I treated these infamous toys as an extended metaphor for the ways in which plastics have become deeply bound to our human experience. The other materials used in this 6'30" film include dirt, human hair, wig hair, lights, glue, and samples from a news item.
Details
Online exhibition | February 2021 | Commissioned by Green Your Noise | Music: Composed and performed by Luiz Gubeissi
c. Dean West, 2021