Semiotics of the Waterways examines the entangled relationship between river systems and consumption.

Inspired by American feminist artist Martha Rosler's Semiotics of the Kitchen(1975), the project stages the absurd act of washing a plastic bag retrieved from the polluted Thames. The plastic bag becomes a symbol of consumer culture, while the act of cleaning it highlights the futility of environmental efforts that fail to address systemic causes. As the soapy water is poured back into the system, the work underscores the cyclical nature of pollution and the way rivers are treated as dumping grounds.

Drawing on Timothy Morton's Dark Ecology¹(2016), the project rejects the binary between humans and nature, instead framing waste as ecology —a trace of human entanglement with the nonhuman world. Echoing Rosler's use of domestic gestures to critique systemic structures, the work repositions cleaning as an act of futility, exposing the contradictions in attempting to remediate environmental damage while perpetuating cycles of consumption and disposal.

Staged within a transparent glass tank, the project makes both the effort and its limitations visible. It critiques the colonial impulse to control and "fix" the environment, inviting viewers to confront the unresolved consequences of ecological harm. Rather than proposing solutions that overlook systemic change, Semiotics of the Waterways critically reflects on the contradictions between capitalism and nature and the implications of a world increasingly shaped by waste.

¹Morton, T. Dark ecology: For a logic of future coexistence. Columbia University Press, 2016.