lucas olscamp

Plastic Mourner

In 2017-2019, I attended York University to pursue my Masters in Sustainable Design for the Performing Arts. While educating myself on the ecological impacts of art making, I was drawn to both the environmental and symbolic affect of plastic bags.

My graduate thesis, The Funeral, thrust plastic into the performative forefront as I remade the body of my late grandmother from plastic bags and enacted a queer Catholic funeral service for the object. Entangling performance art, sculpture, and live theatre, the synthetic human body became a catalyst for personal narratives of grief and mourning to emerge and evolve.

For more information, or to read the full text:

The Object / The Body / The Ritual: An affectual dissection of plastic bags through performance design

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