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---------- is an ongoing photographic series that connects Poklong Anading’s research into individual and community identity with urgent conversations about the environmental impact of single-use plastics. After photographing each subject with a plastic bag of his or her choice worn over the head, the artist then exchanges the sitter’s bag with a cloth tote bearing an image of the artist in a similar pose. The resulting portraits, which echo the obscuration of identity explored in his earlier Anonymity series, rely only on the subject’s clothing and the logos, prints, and patterns on the plastic bag to convey any hint of the subject’s identity. Plastic shopping bags became globally ubiquitous in the 1980s as a cost-effective and sturdier alternative to paper bags, but growing awareness on the negative impact of single use plastics on the environment in recent years has led to various governments banning the manufacture and use of such bags.

Recognising that each plastic shopping bag embodies a transaction, the artist creates a parallel process in the exchange of a cloth version for the plastic bag. This approach also reflects wider societal shifts by countries and businesses away from low-cost production to more sustainable and environmentally sound practices. At the same time, the series serves as documentation of individuals and communities that lived in this moment of transition, projecting towards a future where progressive environmental policies eventually turn plastic shopping bags into relics of history found only in our landfills.