Image: Alia Parker Ouroborus 2022. Courtesy the artist.
1 December to 12 December 2023
The Circular Textiles Lab explores the nuances of material ecologies to question and construct new imaginaries of how waste can be transformed into experimental textile forms. The exhibition surveys the possibilities hidden within waste matter that has been discarded, damaged-beyond-repair or is no longer used as intended.
Joanna Fowles, Alia Parker and Emma Peters are three researchers, makers and designers working at the intersection of textiles, discarded matter and craft who generate a critical exchange of ideas and practice. Joanna Fowles experiments with the chromatic possibilities from local waste streams, including food waste; Alia Parker collaborates with mushroom mycelium in producing bio-textiles and Emma Peters is working to create circular design solutions for the bed linen industry. These diverse textile approaches come together to consider how attentiveness to haptic craft practices can re-value post-consumer waste. We are at a critical point ecologically with mass waste accumulation. Crafting real-world and speculative responses can generate new imaginaries for how to coexist sustainably.