Katelyn White - 2023

Artist's Statement

From the air we breathe to the ground we walk on, it’s no doubt that humans take the land and environment for granted. I often think about the context and impact of my choices surrounding the environment and what it means to be sustainable.

For my project I chose to upcycle thrifted clothing using ecologically friendly dyes from plants. I displayed my pieces and a few of my friends’ on a clothesline. Clothing items were thrifted from the Deseret Industries Thrift Store and are mainly plant-based fabrics such as cotton. Colors and prints on the clothing were made using natural earth-based dyes rather than synthetic ones. Many of the floral prints were made using leftover Valentine’s bouquets. Some of the clothing has additional dyes made with coffee grounds, mud, turmeric, etc.

The clothesline piece is a statement on today’s consumerist world through a critique of the clothing industry. Consumerism is a widely spread capitalist idea that rose in popularity after WWII that makes people feel as if material goods are desirable and lead to happiness. ‘Fast fashion’ is a continually growing facet of global consumerism that encourages the mass production and sale of clothing. It is called ‘fast fashion’ because of the speed at which clothing is produced, distributed, marketed, and discarded. Some examples of corporations looped in this system are Zara, H&M and online stores such as Shein.

This industry has significant impacts on our environment. As a past retail employee, I had a glimpse into fast fashion and saw some of the impacts firsthand. I worked on the shipment team that received and unpackaged products. The sheer amount of clothing that was shipped each week was appalling. Most clothing was individually wrapped in plastic bags and enormous bins full of plastic waste were taken out twice a week just from that process. The racks and shelves were shoved full with more than people could buy. In addition to contributing to plastic and clothing waste, ten percent of global human carbon emissions are made by clothing production. Petroleum is essential to running many of these companies’ factories by providing energy to power them. The burning of petroleum releases toxic gasses, such as carbon monoxide, and large amounts of carbon dioxide that pollute the air and contribute to the global climate crisis. By doing an ecologically friendly project that recycles clothing and discourages consumerism, I hoped to inspire others to do the same.