Undercover – From Necessity to Debris: The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19

In 2020, it was estimated that 129 billion face masks were used globally each month, with the vast majority of them containing disposable plastic microfibres. Undercover: from Necessity to Debris, The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19, documents these discarded face coverings found and photographed in the streets during the last year. Strewn across rain-sodden pavements and gutters, at first glance, these masks may seem unremarkable, indistinguishable, unworthy of attention. While it is true that a face mask, even if only worn across the mouth, serves to conceal the wearer’s identity, a closer look at these objects reveals clues to the lives of their previous owners. As such, these photographs serve as a form of absentee portraiture. The complete series of 365 images were first shown in May 2020, as non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) on OpenSea, where 52 were given away for free. Reimagined in this grandiose physical scale, the images function as abstract meditations on the minutiae of the urban environment, serving as both an archive of highly disposable material culture and a reflection on the environmental impact of our response to COVID-19