🎙️ Join us on a journey with ⁠Nerissa Cargill Thompson,⁠ where Theatre Design meets a passion for textile art! 🌟 Dive into her creative process and the inspiration behind her sustainable masterpieces. From mixed media sculptures to wearable art, discover how she's weaving together environmental consciousness and artistic expression. Tune in for a delightful chat that'll leave you inspired and thinking about your impact on the world. 🌍✨

Bio:

Designer, maker and facilitator with over 25 years experience of professional and community practice. Originally trained in Theatre Design but through my community arts practice, my interest in fibre art grew and a desire to develop personal artwork leading to an MA in Textile Practice at Manchester School of Art.

Member of Prism Contemporary Textiles Collective, Design Nation, Spark Artist Network, Immaterial Collective and ArtCan.

Experienced workshop facilitator ranging from drop ins or single sessions to projects that develop over several weeks or even months using a range of visual arts but with a general focus of sustainability and wellbeing using recycled materials as much as possible.

Artist statement

My work explores environmental issues like climate crisis, plastic pollution and waste through textile art using recycled materials and mixed media sculptures of textiles and concrete* cast in the plastic packaging that we use and discard on a daily basis; objects that are so lightweight and seem so insignificant. My aim is to make people consider the world around them and their responsibility to the environment. The concrete gives a weight and presence more in-line with their legacy; naturally inspired textures emphasise the way our waste becomes subsumed into the environment.

Recent sculptural work highlights the issue of plastic pollution and climate change. It invites us to consider the packaging that we use and discard on a daily basis; objects such as drinks bottles that are so lightweight and seem so insignificant that we barely notice them. Casting them in cement to make them heavy and solid, I hope to convey the weight of the issue and the permanence of these disposables. The incorporation of detailed embroidery touches upon the way our waste becomes subsumed into the natural world around us.

Images courtesy of  ⁠Nerissa Cargill Thompson.