“[Plastic] is perhaps the hardest material there is. It is hard, because it refuses its environment, creating a sealant or barrier that remains impermeable to what surrounds it. It influences its environment while remaining mute to that environment’s influence,” (Davis 351).
Working with plastic, specifically vapour barrier, gave me an opportunity to use the object as a representation of myself and my mental illness; an indirect self-portrait. The purpose of vapour barrier is to protect something from the outside environment. It becomes a shield.
I feel understood by this object, this material. I feel as though I carry around my own vapour barrier whenever I leave my room, and although vapour barrier does not let ‘debris’ in, by default, it also doesn’t allow ‘debris’ out.
