This photo essay responds to Murphy's assertion that toxicities are 'wayward particles behaving badly'. The images and annotations focus on non-living materialities which signal a more complex interplay between 'waywardness' and control, the contrasting agency of toxic elements and the agency of humans. The essay mocks human's desire for control whilst showing the power they have yielded over environments in efforts to prolong bodies.Taking the images alone, I am struck by the complex presence/absense of human life, where the material is made to signify human effort. Whilst the annotations focus on the interplay of power relations, these images are also interjected with a kind of melancholy. Here, we gaze at the futility of our projects in life and after life. The visualisation and caption together teeter on the line of mockery and sadness, of presence and of loss. This is an example of Elizabeth Povinelli's view, that toxicities exist in the interplay between life, death and non-life.
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