In 2020, over 53 million disposable facemasks were discarded every day in the UK alone — a striking symbol of both global vulnerability and our dependence on single-use materials. While society rapidly adapted to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, there remains a stark resistance to taking equivalent action against climate change.
Hyperobjects is an experimental work by Irish artist Kerrie O’Leary that confronts the overwhelming scale of ecological crisis through the lens of the facemask — an object that became both ubiquitous and disposable. Referencing philosopher Timothy Morton’s concept of hyperobjects — phenomena so vast in time and space they defy individual comprehension — the work uses this humble artefact to visualise the paradoxes of human response: urgent and immediate in one crisis, slow and hesitant in another.
This piece is not only a critique of single-use culture, but also a reflection on the difficulty of grasping the enormity of climate change. By transforming the facemask into a sculptural form, Hyperobjects challenges viewers to confront the material reality of our consumption and consider the invisible systems that govern our lives.
