What political, economic and social factors might be influencing practitioners of art in the west today?
Environmental
Climate change, re-use, reduce, recycle, upcycling, waste influencing choice and use of materials. Movement away from consumerism to more thoughtful, mindful making and purchasing.
Artists using recycled materials:
- TextileArtists
- Stonecycling – WasteBasedBricks – recycling old bricks into handmade bricks for building facades, furniture
- Tobias Horrocks – fold theory – re-formed cardboard installations
- Re-evaluation/re-discovering traditional materials – bamboo, lotus leaf, pineapple, hemp fibres:
- Pina Couture
- Environmentally sensitive, environment-enhancing architecture (vertical forest buildings China), buildings constructed from recycled plastics (Africa).
- Stefano Boeri – architect
Response to social and political issues
Capitalism vs socialism (Banksy/graffiti art), activism through art (Craftivists), art as conveying social message, building unity (Manchester bees)
- Banksy
- Sarah Corbett – founder of the Craftivist Collective
- Controversial, thought-provoking art
- Manchester Bees – a city’s collective response to a tragedy
- Conor Collins
- Response to Trump administration describing arts funding as not ‘prudent’ (Format Magazine article)
Technology and new materials – artists have exciting new media and technologies to work with:
- New materials (leaf-leather, myco-leather and myco-plastics), 3-d printing. Artists working with innovative materials or using materials in new ways, eg: ;
- Natasia Audrey Chieza – bio-dyes and biotextiles
- Adriana Santanocito – orange fiber
- Artists becoming innovator/designers, creators of new materials through art exploration. Artists integrating their skills with the circular economy