Garbage Patch
2022-2023
This series explores the act of creation as an inherently wasteful process. Whenever I go through the creative process, I often feel a lingering sense of guilt about the waste I create. This project grew out of the idea that repurposing waste to create new images might alleviate some of that guilt. More than just the production of the work, the focus here is on the actions that precede and follow the creative process - regularly collecting a certain amount of trash from the street I live on, sorting it, and properly disposing of all the collected materials after temporary use.
The trash collected in a day is used to create a scene in the studio, where chance encounters of objects - from plastic bottles and cigarette butts to unexpected items like broken eyeglass frames and mahjong tiles - reflect the intersection of countless anonymous individuals in the metropolis, revealing a fragmented portrait of Tokyo from the ground up.
