Mapping the Agency of Trash

Abstract In view of the growing concerns and innate creative potential of waste, this article reconsiders the ontological status of discarded materials and materiality as active components/agents in the conception, making, and interpretation of art through a new-materialist framework. By denying a pure representational analysis, the study instead brings forth art’s complex dynamic material-semiotic character. It offers a re-reading of the artworks of twenty-first century Indian artists by exploring multiple facets of how trash operates conceptually and physically. A nuanced understanding of the co-constitutive, relational role of myriad human and non-human actors is instantiated through case studies. By discussing the re-appropriation of trash under three overlapping categories, where the artists apply trash as metaphor and symbol; relics; and substance/physical matter (for its physical properties like texture, colour, etc), the study acknowledges the material-discursive character of art. Thus, the study offers an extended interpretation of materials and objects in art where meaning and material are mutually constructive.