The piece depicts a multilayered textile vision of a dystopia in which most plant species have gone extinct in their natural environment. Some are still cultivated for their nutritional value, while ornamental plants merely exist as visually impeccable imitations of the originals, for they serve no practical purpose. Humans have replicated them to keep a memory of their external beauty, while their insides actually consist of recycled plastic and metal waste.
By itself on the verge of extinction, the lady‘s-slipper orchid serves as a motive. Likewise integrated are natural ways of decay such as wilting and moulding. This should illustrate the century-old aging process through which flowers and plants as motives in textile patterns have gone. The piece can therefore be read as criticism to the ever recurring subject that is slowly starting to wilt due to its overuse in textile mainstream. Following this thought, another layer consisting of greenish mould eats away at the different textiles to show the perishability of their prettiness.
3 m x 1.5 m
synthetic textile fibres,
printing paste
Supervisors: Lylian Meister, Piret Valk
2019
Projekti autor:
Valérie Rust, BA (Šveits)