‘Carefully Packaged’ evolved from some building work that started at home in January 2022. We had building materials, boxes and products delivered. The skip overflowed with rubble, bricks, and 100 year old wood. I became fascinated with the process and changes taking place; however, I was also drawn into the variety of packaging that was used to deliver our new materials and products. I was pleasantly relieved that quite a lot of it was in cardboard boxes with stiff brown paper used to pack the voids or wrapped in corrugated cardboard. However, it was also very noticeable to find some of the items were wrapped in plastic, bubble wrap and expanded polystyrene – so where will this end up? There seemed to be a lot for one small domestic job, what about the bigger builds and huge commercial undertakings – where is the destination of all the ‘rubbish’? Do we need to check if the supply chain of our product packaging is monitored? Whose responsibility is it - the manufacturer, supplier, builder, or consumer?
These 'museumesque' photographic sculptural ‘still live’ constructions are solely from unwanted packaging, I wanted to immortalise the 'waste' and 'leftovers'. It made me question if scientists are creating unconventional options with revolutionary materials to replace todays commonly used packaging?
Alternative resources are being slowly introduced such as compostable and biodegradable wrappings; however recycling cardboard does have limitations.
Will the very distant future of mankind look at these items and be horrified with the leftovers of their ancestors?