White Garbage

Kelly Wood’s White Garbage (1997) was a precursor to Wood’s durational Continuous Garbage Project (1998–2003), during which the artist photographed her domestic waste production over a five-year period. The subject of garbage has been central to Wood’s photographic practice since the late nineties, serving as a metonym through which she engages topics such as environmental degradation, consumerism and the excesses of capitalism. White Garbage draws attention to the ubiquitous plastic bag, a quotidian object that has become a target of environmental policies. Wood’s framing of the plastic bag removes it from its familiar domestic and consumer contexts, transforming it into an abnormal object; this sense of estrangement is heightened by the unknowability of its contents. Wood’s photographs also engage with the notion that art making is inherently an excessive undertaking, attesting to the artist’s enduring commitment to issues of environmentalism and pollution.
-Weiyi Chang, 2024