ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how waste as the abject ‘other’ of society might be representative of queer lives which have themselves often been designated as waste by dominant social forces. To navigate this subject position, this chapter reflects on elements of my own practice-led research which engages with waste materials – focusing specifically on the artworks Faggots (2019–2020) and Faggoting (2019). Through my artwork and in this chapter, I explore waste as both physical matter and discursive construct, ultimately suggesting that this supposition of ‘queer-as-waste’ can quite literally be recycled into a powerful site of self-creation. This is particularly achieved via a camp practice which may embrace the marginal status of waste, approaching this subject matter with a smirk and a dismissive flick of the wrist.
