Pia Truscott

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

Matter Out Of Place

My work is about the package, the container, the carrier. It is about the plastic bag. My body of work speaks to the materiality of plastic and about how plastic has begun to slip under my skin. I work with found plastic packaging and acrylic paint. Some of the plastic is salvaged from building skips; other packages are found during chance encounters while walking or driving. Sometimes I find a purple muesli packet left in my studio by a friend. I paint the plastic bags and iron pieces together to create larger works. These tapestries often evoke landscapes. I refer to these as ‘My Plastic World.’ I use plastic to reimagine the tradition of Western landscape painting. My work portrays a contemporary landscape where nature has become increasingly plasticised. How can we think with plastic rather than against it? The packaging I use encompasses the history of many lives; it has carried many objects and has been touched by many hands. Plastic packaging is a tangible stain of consumption and of what is left behind. After being used once, this type of plastic is often considered ‘Matter Out Of Place.’ It has come to mark our times, described by Matt Dowling as the ‘Plasticene’ era.

But these bags refuse to be forgotten; they stay where they are. By collecting these plastic bags, I redirect the waste from disappearing and make it appear again, and I let it touch us back. Plastic is not a comfortable material to use. But by choosing plastic as a material to work with, I choose to ‘stay with the trouble.’ To stay with the trouble is to lean into the discomfort.

‘Staying with the trouble means making oddkin; that is, we require each other in unexpected

collaborations and combinations...We become-with each other or not at all.’

My work entangles people with the trouble of plastic. I use plastic packaging as a language to paint with, compose with, and in a larger sense, to ‘become-with.’ My process is intuitive. Sometimes I need pale pink and navy blue; other days require dripping red paint, or a tomato bag with two red plastic stripes, to which I may add lime green. The plastic can be weightless, crinkly, slippery, transparent, toxic, water-resistant, lovable, oily and unpredictable. It has become familiar as I slice, layer, snip, paint and iron the material. Once the plastic is dry, I layer it to form larger compositions, allowing the colours to speak to one another. Each work takes on a voice of its own. The work shimmers, sways and glows with colour. And so the plastic begins to speak, to touch us back.