Date of Award

7-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Art History and Visual Culture

Department

Art

First Advisor

Piper Hutson

Second Advisor

Chajuana Trawick

Third Advisor

Kelly Scheffer

Abstract

Environmentalism is a topic that has permeated all facets of society, to include the arts community, especially in textile art. Textile art has shown promising potential for the purposeful incorporation of eco-friendly materials in the creation of textile art. This allows for the textile artist to follow their primary goal of creative freedom while obtaining a secondary goal of being environmentally friendly in art creation. There are six identifiable areas of choice for use of materials, these being use of recycled textiles, reuse of textiles, use of natural fibers (animals as one category, plants as the second category), use of non-textiles in a textile manner, and the use of newly invented textiles that are eco-friendly in nature. Twelve contemporary textile artists who are currently making textile art in each of the aforementioned categories will serve as case studies. Vanessa Barragão and Zwia Lipkin use recycled textiles, Derick Melander and Karina Kaikkonen engage in reuse of textiles, Natalie Miller and Akihiko Izukura use animal fibers, Susan Beallor-Snyder and Alice Fox use plant fibers, El Anatsui and Michelle Stitzlein use nontextile materials, and Diana Scherer and Nienke Hoogvliet explore use of newly invented textiles. Together, these twelve artists will be examined to see whose process mitigates the negative environmental impact the most when creating their art. To identify this, these selected artists will be analyzed for how minimal their impact is on the environment, for issues concerning end-of-life disposal, and for the accessibility to the concept and materials they use for other textile artists to emulate. Together, this analysis will provide insight as to the most environmentally friendly process(es) to incorporate in textile art. In turn, this analysis will demonstrate the potential for all artists to consider engaging with environmentally friendly materials while still pursing their medium to the fullest creative extent possible.

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