THE PLASTOCENE

What happens to the things we throw away? It is easy to forget a plastic bag after carrying our groceries home, a wrapper after finishing a snack, or a container after a meal. These objects are part of our everyday routines, valued for their convenience and often discarded as soon as they have served their purpose. But while their usefulness may be brief, their existence does not end when we let them go. They remain, accumulating in our surroundings and leaving traces of the lives we live and the choices we make.

Presented by Silaw Artist Collective at the Yuchengco Museum, The Plastocene examines our age of convenience and consumption through the enduring material traces of everyday life. Bringing together contemporary artists whose works engage with ecological consequences, the exhibition asks us to reconsider our relationship with plastic and the world that receives what we discard. Its title evokes a time defined by plastic’s pervasive presence, prompting us to look beyond individual pieces of waste and consider the habits and systems that allow them to accumulate. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, plastic pollution threatens ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. In the Philippines, an estimated 19-23 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into the world’s oceans annually, resulting in a volume of approximately 75-199 million tonnes of plastic submerged in our waters. These figures remind us that waste is not merely a matter of what we choose to throw away, but also of what happens after it leaves our hands.

Within this conversation, Eghai Roxas’ works bring discarded materials into focus through found objects and assemblage. Familiar items are gathered, rearranged, and presented in ways that challenge us to look at them differently. What might otherwise be overlooked becomes difficult to ignore. Across LOOK, TOXIC LIFE: Submerged in Materials, DISSECT, and BREATHE, the materials and compositions vary, yet each work offers an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between human life, consumption, and the waste that remains.

In BREATHE (2026), black plastic bags form a dark, layered surface crossed by thin lines, while pale hands emerge from the composition. Against the mass of plastic, the hands stand out, appearing scattered across a space that feels tangled and constrained. The title invokes something fundamental to life, yet the image complicates the simplicity of that word. What does it mean to breathe and live within an environment increasingly shaped by the materials we discard? Plastic pollution affects more than the appearance of our surroundings. Its impacts extend to aquatic ecosystems and wildlife, while the wider production and disposal of plastics also contribute to environmental pressures. The work’s contrast between the hands and the surrounding material invites reflection on the vulnerability of life within a world shaped by human activity. Rather than depicting a particular polluted landscape, BREATHE brings the question closer to the body, reminding us that environmental concerns are inseparable from the conditions that sustain us.

In LOOK (2026), discarded packaging, wrappers, containers, and other plastic materials form a dense composition, with a mirror at its center, reflecting the viewer. The title is both direct and inviting: look. Take notice. Pay attention to what is already around us. Amid the accumulation of familiar waste, the reflection of us sits at the center. We are not entirely separate from the materials before us; we are part of the same culture of consumption that produces them. The work invites us to consider how easily we overlook the consequences of our everyday habits, especially when disposal allows us to move on without thinking about where our waste goes. By bringing these remnants together, LOOK asks us to confront what we have grown accustomed to ignoring. What do the things we leave behind reveal about us?

TOXIC LIFE:Submerged in Materials
Size : 4 x 3 feet
Assemblage: Found objects
Year: 2026

Eghai Roxas with his work, TOXIC LIFE: Submerged in Materials

In TOXIC LIFE: Submerged in Materials (2026), Roxas assembles a portrait from an assortment of manufactured objects and discarded tech components, with plastic shopping bags hanging beneath it. The face sits amid a tightly packed arrangement of materials, creating the impression of a human presence surrounded by the objects of modern life. The title introduces a tension between the conveniences these objects provide and the consequences they may carry when their use ends. The shopping bags are especially familiar: ordinary things used to transport purchases, often for only a short time. Here, they remain visible as part of the work rather than disappearing from consideration. Their presence reminds us that the convenience of a disposable object is only one part of its story. Plastic and tech waste can persist in the environment, fragment into smaller particles, and threaten aquatic ecosystems and wildlife. The work invites us to consider how the materials woven into everyday life can also become an overwhelming presence, raising questions about the cost of convenience and the consequences of our dependence on disposable things.

Dissect
Size : 4 x 5 feet
Assemblage: Found objects
Year: 2026

In DISSECT (2025), translucent plastic stretches outward from a dark central mass, its folds radiating across the composition. The arrangement draws our attention toward the center, creating a visual impression of something exposed for examination. Its title suggests an act of looking more closely, of opening something up to understand what lies within. Read alongside the concerns of The Plastocene, the work encourages us to examine the processes behind the waste we encounter: the production, consumption, and disposal of materials that are often treated as separate stages. An object may enter our lives as a useful product and leave them as rubbish, but its material consequences continue beyond that transition. Plastic pollution is not simply the result of individual items being discarded; it is also connected to patterns of production, consumption, and waste management. DISSECT offers a visual prompt to look beneath the surface of these routines and consider the larger cycle in which they belong.

Breathe
Size : 4 x 5 feet
Assemblage: Found objects
Year: 2026

Together, these works invite us to reconsider the relationship between what we consume and what remains. LOOK asks us to pay attention; TOXIC LIFE: Submerged in Materials places the human figure amid the objects that surround it; DISSECT encourages closer examination; and BREATHE turns our attention toward the conditions that make life possible. Their meanings remain open to each viewer, but their materials bring an otherwise familiar problem into the foreground. The challenge raised by The Plastocene extends beyond awareness. Addressing plastic pollution requires changes in how materials are produced, used, collected, and managed, alongside a reconsideration of the habits that make disposable products so commonplace. Art cannot resolve this crisis on its own, but it can make us pause long enough to see what we might otherwise overlook. The works of Eghai Roxas ask us to look again at the things we leave behind and to recognize that disposal does not erase our responsibility toward them. What we consume leaves a trace. What we discard continues to exist. And what remains may tell us more about our time than we are willing to admit.

Eghai Roxas with his work, TOXIC LIFE: Submerged in Materials