At the core of this collection is an examination of advertising as a structuring force—one that defines value, constructs identity, and manipulates perception. Billboards, magazine spreads, newspaper headlines, and packaging design are not neutral; they are calculated interventions that mold collective consciousness. The visual language of persuasion, designed for immediate impact, often outlives its purpose, accumulating in landfills and subconscious memories alike.

Equally important is the disposability of print culture—a medium once revered for its permanence, now relegated to ephemerality. Newspapers, once historical records, are now consumed, discarded, and forgotten within hours. Advertisements, designed for momentary seduction, vanish into irrelevance almost as soon as they appear. Even packaging, intended as a temporary vessel, persists in physical and environmental spaces long after its contents are gone. Through layered compositions of these discarded texts and images, Paper Trails interrogates the tension between permanence and impermanence, visibility and erasure.

By repurposing mass-produced messaging into sculptural interventions, this collection forces a confrontation with the weight of accumulated information. It challenges the assumption that what is designed to be temporary has no lasting consequence, exposing the cultural and ecological cost of disposable media. What happens to the messages we no longer read? How do the slogans that once defined trends, fears, and aspirations continue to echo in the cultural subconscious? And in an era of digital dominance, where printed materials rapidly lose their status, what does their physical presence in waste reveal about the way we consume information?

Through its use of found advertisements, recycled packaging, and obsolete print media, Paper Trails crystallizes a moment in time—a moment where everything is designed to be immediate, yet nothing is built to last. These works do not merely collect remnants of persuasion; they reconfigure them, allowing the viewer to witness the mechanics of influence in reverse. What was once a vehicle for selling products, ideas, or political ideologies is now a material witness to a system that thrives on repetition, replacement, and erasure.

In exposing the contradictions of this media-driven world, Paper Trails serves as both documentation and critique. It asks the viewer not just to observe but to question: If all messages are temporary, what remains imprinted in the mind? If all packaging is disposable, what is truly discarded? And if everything is designed to be forgotten, how do we reclaim control over what we remember?