The idea of the master's thesis "Ecological Approaches to Socially Engaged Textile Art" is
primarily focused on the impact of synthetic dyes on nature and the consequences of a large amount
of food waste on land, water and energy. With that basis, this paper explores the production of
ecological pigments as a means of expressing significant social themes through textile art.
In the technological segment of the work, both the process of collecting food waste and the process
of making pigments are demonstrated. In parallel with that, the obtained colors were used in the
further production of art objects through which the main focus was on the link between the
criticism of society and the work on pigments itself. The whole process of making pigments, which
starts with food waste and ends with pigments, is a matter of questioning aesthetics, that is, turning
something that is ugly and that we want to get rid of (which is part of nature) into a work of art.
Through experimentation and creation of works of art from discarded materials, several different
pieces were performed that emphasize some of the more important socio-ecological topics. Those
experiments resulted, in addition to obtaining pigments from food scraps, in a readymade
installation, a tapestry made of leftover fabric and embroidery rings with painted archetypes, as
well as a larger textile piece that represents internalized capitalism.
The work, through the presented topics, simultaneously dealt with internalized capitalism, with
which it showed the specific dynamics of the effect of the modern way of life on ecology and
psychology, thus uniting those two through mutual influence.
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