Above: trashglomerate hand collected from a sample of trash-incinerator ash in 2016
Trash World is an ongoing project that takes the charred refuse of human activity as the starting point for meditations on ecology, toxicity, relationality and beyond.
Early in 2016, I met an employee of a waste-to-energy corporation, whose name I am not at liberty to disclose, at a McDonalds outside of Washington, DC. In the parking lot, I received a 5 gallon bucket of trash incinerator waste and signed a non-disclosure agreement with regards to its source. I've been exploring the material, widely unknown to the general population and quite difficult to procure, through careful observation and via the miniature geologic process of the ceramic kiln.
The Anthropocene: human activity as a major geologic force on the planet.
Trashglomerate: a metamorphic marker of our time in the rock-record.
Our Trash is forever.
Above: Redacted legal documents from the ash acquisition process.
ABOVE: At the McDonalds right after the handoff with 5 gallons of ash in tow.
ABOVE: porcelain cup glazed with trash incinerator ash, 2016
Above: objects collected from ash