Climate Quilt
By: Aran Dorsey, Theremena Fernandez, MJ Golberg, Althea Ericksen, Roland Hairston, Kaitlin Fischl, Megan Hassi, David Guillen, and Victoria Espino
Art acts as a way to conceptualize the impalpable burdens of our world. Climate change is a present threat that is difficult to grapple with, but art can be both an outlet and a vessel for change. Inspired by works that we have been shown in the course, Art and Climate Change, and our own private research, we individually created quilt squares that represent our voice in this epoch. Our main inspirations stem from Eva Horn’s “Aesthetics of the Anthropocene”, The Age of Resilience by Jeremey Rifkin, and “Trashion Fashion” in aim to reduce textile waste. The final quilt represents a metaphor for our own Aesthetics and resilience in this era: each an individual square with our own voices but joined together in climate activism.
One of the main inspirations of our project stemmed from an essay read in class titled, Aesthetics of the Anthropocene by Eva Horn. This essay highlighted the author's perspective on what it means to design a unified aesthetic of the current anthropological time period that has led to climate change. During our reflection and presentation of Horn’s work, our group found there was a diverse range of takeaways- not only amongst ourselves but in our class' response to the paper as well. Inspired by our differences, we wanted to create a piece that honored those who found the guidelines presented by Horn beneficial simultaneously with those who found them limiting. Our aesthetic was left up to interpretation for the viewer to decide whether or not it makes a meaningful statement on climate change.
Partially inspired by The Age of Resilience by Jeremey Rifkin, we have begun defining our resiliency with our unity. In this text, he explores the definition of resilience and how our current time is defined by it. Capturing Rifkin’s main ideas about this word, he states, “Resilience, in turn, has become the new defining refrain heard in countless venues. It is how we are coming to define ourselves in a perilous future that is now at the front gates.” (Rifkin 2022, 2-3) This defines the struggle, the burden, and the reality we face with climate change. How we define ourselves in this age is our resilience, and our choice to make. He also states in the text:
The great transformation from the Age of Progress to the Age of Resilience is already triggering a vast philosophical and psychological readjustment in the way our species perceives the world around us. At the root of the transition is a wholesale shift of our temporal and spatial orientation. (Rifkin 2022, 3)
Resilience is who and what we are now. This power defines a new generation with unity and strength. Our quilt illustrates this concept by embodying comfort and warmth but also representing the harsh realities our climate faces. This duality is what captures Rifkin’s ideas and philosophies, as it combines both sides of resilience into one. Rifkin also calls for a change in society as a whole, exemplifying the need for collective change to fight environmental issues. The idea of working as a collective served as a motivation for us to complete such a large project that combines so many voices.
The last inspiration for our project's concept came from the idea of reducing textile waste, which is one of the world’s biggest polluters. The textile industry makes up between 8%-10% of global emissions, emitting around 1.7 million tons of CO2 per year, contaminating around 20% of global clean water, as well as accounting for 35% of the microplastics released into the environment (Burkhardt, 2023). Due to this impact, we were inspired by Trashion, which is a sustainable fashion movement focused on creating clothing, jewelry, and other accessories out of trashed or repurposed items (Friedman, 2019). We specifically were inspired by pieces like those made by the brand Tonlé, as well as artists and designers like Daniel Silverstien, who creates garments from wasted fabric and other repurposed materials. To put this inspiration into practice, recycled fabric and materials formed the foundation of our quilt. Through reusing materials, we create a piece of art that is not only representative of the issue of climate change, but of a solution.
The use of a quilt and patchwork as the medium for this project is to illustrate how seemingly separate issues and themes connect under the umbrella of climate change. Using fabric to visually connect these topics, we are able to show how they all unite regardless of how different they are. On their own, each individual square is a piece of art representing an issue or theme that resonates with the creator, but together as a whole, the quilt acts as a metaphor for climate change. This messaging shows how a range of expressions and perspectives can all be distinct yet form unity. This harmony can be projected on a larger scale since we all come from a diverse range of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. It represents the balance of how different communities can all hold their individuality yet come together as a whole. We believe what makes our project so special is this ability to encompass the vast scale of climate change without sacrificing detail and thoughtfulness. When viewing the individual squares and presentations, you notice that no type of materials or styles were repeated and no topic was the same, however, they cohesively joined together to make a quilt resulting in a collective statement on climate change. This is symbolic of how when fighting against climate change, we require a variety of skills and perspectives. Just as a single square of the quilt alone wouldn’t keep you warm at night, one individual or school of thought won’t solve the climate crisis. Because each of us have our own passions, knowledge, skills, and values- it highlights the importance for us to contribute to bettering the world as a collective, unable to act alone.
References:
“Dyeing Clothes Uses Lots of Fossil Fuel. Startups Are Vying to Fix That.” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2023.
Friedman, Vanessa. “The Future Is Trashion.” The New York Times, December 20, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/style/zero-waste-daniel-trashion.html.
Heitzer, Anja, Johan Holten, and Sebastian Schneider. “Aesthetic of the Anthropocene by Eva Horn.” Essay. In 1.5 Degrees: Interdependencies between Life, the Cosmos, and Technology. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2023.
Rifkin, Jeremy. The Age of Resilience : Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth. First edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2022.
(S&D, Delara Burkhardt. “The Impact of Textile Production and Waste on the Environment (Infographics): News: European Parliament.” The impact of textile production and waste on the environment (infographics) | News | European Parliament, November 15, 2023.