Stitching for Material Sensitivity: From Traditional to Activist Embroidery
(2023)
author(s): Fabiola Hernandez Cervantes, Maria Huhmarniemi
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Cochineal is an insect that has been used for textile dyeing since pre-Hispanic cultures in Mexico. This exposition discusses the use of the cochineal insect as a natural dye for wool and the bridge between ancient indigenous knowledge and contemporary artistic research. A transatlantic connection is created between the Mexican plateau and the Arctic region, merging traditional knowledge, contemporary art, crafting and conceptualisation through an artistic embroidery initiative involving researchers, craft artists and human rights activists living in the province of Lapland in Finland. Documentary photos of artistic practice and research diaries enhance discussion on sustainability, tradition, craftivism, decolonisation and indigenous knowledge. This exposition embraces collaborative craftivism through a group initiative called Embroidered Stances, discussions about material interconnectedness in a web-of-life conceptual structure that includes sheep wool, cactus, cochineal and ancestral knowledge. The endorsement of material sensitivity is narrated into embroideries by the first author Cervantes and discussed, acknowledging complexities within issues of cultural and ecological sustainability.
Pre-examination materials, Christoph Oeschger
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Christoph Oeschger
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
As Arctic ice melts, borders shift once inaccessible places and resources become accessible, and new claims to raw materials and territories are made. What is in our heads as a romantic image of wilderness becomes a playground for geopolitical and economic interests. The Arctic is changing like never before, from a romanticized image of wild, harsh nature to a technological place full of economic interests. The Arctic has become a hotspot of border shifts and geopolitical interests. The essay film „In the Ice, everything leaves a trace“ is a poetic approach to this place and makes the invisible visible.
„In the Ice, everything leaves a trace“ Is the outcome of joint research of the Author Gianna Molinari and the Artist Christoph Oeschger. We started in Greenland; we recognized that the Arctic is also elsewhere: In the tubes, under microscopes, electronics, and maps.
ArsbioArctica Residency 2014
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Annette Arlander
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exposition archives, documents and hopefully also exposes the work created during two one-week ArsBioarctica residencies at the biological station in Kilpisjärvi, in April and June 2014. It serves as an appendix to a text "Data, material, remains" to be published in Koro-Ljungberg, Loytonen & Tear (eds.) Data Encounters.