The start of my journey cloth is covered in naturally dyed, recycled fabric. I wanted to show the idyllic side to nature, or a romanticised view of the earth before climate change and negative human impact, I did this so there would be a larger contrast with the end of the cloth. I showed mountains, forests and fish in the river (Batik dyed) as well as free machine embroidering leaves from different trees. Basically the aim was just to show abundance and the beauty of nature.
You can also see a polar bear on ice that hasn’t yet melted, as well as a painted bird on a migration. I included trees with their roots in the ground and a printed tree ring to show the complexity and beauty of nature. I used the headline “Paris climate change agreement: the world’s greatest diplomatic success” to show hope for the future.
I free machine embroidered and painted flowers with bees flying around them, again, I wanted to show the complexity of nature by making it appear busy. I included bees because their population is unfortunately in decline, and we depend on them for pollinating our food, and I wanted to raise awareness of their importance.
I then moved on to looking at the impacts of climate change and negative human impact. I started out by showing the ice melting by ice dying, although it may not look like melted ice, the process of the ice melting to dye the fabric is symbolic of that. I then created a wave to show the rising sea levels (due to the melting ice) a painted turtle caught in plastic to show ocean pollution and the impact plastic has on marine life. I also included a quote as part of the wave that is unreadable because of the folds and tucks because I wanted to show how the government seems to be ignoring the warning from scientists about the climate crisis. The quote is “ Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught, will we realise we cannot eat money”.
I free machine embroidered the species that are endangered due to climate change and negative human impact next to the wave. I wasn’t able to fit them all on so I randomly chose a few.
This is the last section of the journey cloth. I wanted to finish it with a striking image, so chose forest fires, as this contrasts greatly with the peaceful nature at the start of the cloth. Forest fires have grown more aggressive and uncontrollable, Last year Australia experienced some of the worst fires on record. They are due to a warming climate and less rainfall in certain areas. It also represents burning the rainforest for agriculture. I included climate refugees, as there are predicted to be 250 million climate refugees by 2050 if we don’t act. The refugees are faceless suggesting that this could be anyone. I then finished the cloth with images of viruses, as scientists predict that climate change will cause more pandemics. I included the headline “ The Paris agreement five years on: is it strong enough to avert climate catastrophe?” to contrast with the similar headline that I put at the start of the cloth.
I wanted this to be a powerful piece showing the damage we are doing to the planet, it ends with a feeling of hopelessness but I have designed a seperate “Journey cloth” showing what we can do to create a sustainable future and prevent climate change- as there is still hope!
I was inspired by tapestries such as the bayeux tapestry and artists such as Hannah Lamb and Cas Holmes for this piece.
