Net-work: weaving human-nature connection

Summary: My impetus as an artist is to promote a sense of nature connectedness in the public consciousness, with the understanding that this leads to more pro-environmental attitudes. I gain insights from Indigenous ecological perspectives, the science of plant intelligence, environmental activist movements, and artists whose work facilitates reflection on biocentric values. My methodology includes on site fieldwork to investigate ways to express the language of trees. Dr. Suzanne Simard’s research on the underground network of roots and mycorrhizal fungi enabling communication between trees, and Indigenous philosophies of animism and interspecies connection all support my work. To address these concepts in my thesis project, I initiated a collaborative art installation, “Net-Work”, utilizing handcrafted yarn work — knitting, weaving, and crochet — as my medium, a significant shift for me in materiality and methodology. Although the use of marginalized “women’s craft” carries post-feminist stigma, third-wave feminists are embracing that challenge using craft activism, or “craftism”, as an alternative form of protest. Despite my initial concerns regarding initiating a craft-based socially engaged art project, the numerous and enthusiastic responses I received from participants worldwide is evidence of a resurgence in traditional hand crafts, while demonstrating how social activism can stimulate dialogue and raise awareness of issues, in this case facilitating a tangible response to the effects of human activity on non-human kin. Reliance on the internet for connection and dissemination of information to participants has introduced an unforeseen correlation between online social networking and the underground web of tree connection. While I have now received a sufficient number of fibre works to create the installation, this project continues to evolve, supported by future exhibition opportunities and widening public interest.