In order for humans to live we need the environment, in order for the environment to live it needs us. Our relationship with one another is mutualistic – we rely on the other to survive. This means that as humans we need to ensure that our actions are not damaging the environment and that we implement steps to ensure its sustainability, which in turn ensures our sustainability.One significant action that we as humans pursue in everyday life that damages the environment is use plastic bags. Chemicals from the plastic can be absorbed by humans and pollute groundwater, their debris can be ingested by marine animals, and they take a long time to break down in landfill - a few of the many destructions this everyday item is causing. Convenience and cost are the reasons people keep choosing to use these, even when there are simple alternative options like reusable canvas bags. Ultimately convenience is killing our planet.
My woven wall hanging was developed from the idea of wanting to contrast sustainable and natural materials against artificial and man-made to show how our choice in what we use either maintains or damages our relationship with the environment. Artist Myeing Kim was my main source of inspiration for my final piece. His surrealist sculptures are made from everyday objects combined with nature where he “juxtaposes the objects of opposing worlds…in unexpected ways, to create sculptures that challenge us to rethink the world.” (Quaty 2013, par.1). His work comments on the threats placed upon nature, such as the increasing development of technology and consumerism, to evoke questions of life and growth.
While researching natural sustainable fibres and yarns, I learnt about the environmental issues surrounding the textile industry. These issues include water, air and soil pollution, chemical and toxin usage and water wastage. There are many production methods and products that have been developed to increase sustainability within this industry. I wanted to use some of these methods and products in my work to show that there are alternative options that don’t negatively affect our relationship with the environment. I used sustainable yarns such as wool and organic cotton. Wool is biodegradable, long lasting and uses less water and organic cotton is grown without being treated by toxic pesticides and insecticides. We need to use materials from the environment to live, like fibres that make our clothing, thus we need to ensure we protect it for future generations.
My final piece uses organic textures and sustainable yarns contrasted to man-made everyday plastics. The plastics turn the colourful, textured weaving into dull and grey toned yarns, representing the plastics sucking the colour out of the environment and ultimately killing the planet. At the top of the piece, I have used different weaving techniques such as pile weave and integral fringing to add texture and three dimensions that resemble the variety of textures within the environment. I have used earthy blue and green tones to reflect the colours of a healthy planet and pink to give a pop of colour (which has a large distinction against the grey tones). The top has more rhythm and movement in the curved stripes. This is starkly contrasted to the bottom that has straight horizontal stripes with a consistent texture from the warp weave. The fringing on the bottom uses grey yarns which bare a similar resemblance to shrivelled branches.
On critical reflection of my final work I feel that I would have liked the piece to be longer with more weaving of the dull tones before the fringing starts. This is because the colourful parts look very dominant. I could have also used black coloured yarns within the fringing or at the bottom of the warp weaving to represent ‘death’ – the death of the environment because of the plastic.
Finally, I chose to use a branch to hang the weaving on to use a direct part of nature in the piece. It also represents how the whole work is relying on the branch to hang – just like the man-made environment relies on the natural environment to stay standing.
Our actions don’t need to damage the environment but they do because convenience and low cost are of major importance to humans. My final work’s aim is to spark the viewer to reflect on their own mutualistic relationship with the environment and encourage them to consider the importance of this relationship and the effort we need to put into sustaining it.
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