Weaving a new nature

Weaving a new nature, the project developed for the WAB & Red Gate Gallery Artist-in-Residence program is a collaborative and social-based project leading to creating a site-specific installation inspired by nature in Beijing. The project reflected on a more sustainable way of living and the importance of creatively reusing materials, using human skills like craft techniques, expertise from the local community and natural materials to create without wasting energy or resources. The installation is inspired by the city's disappearing nature. Wild nature is almost impossible to find in big cities. Still, looking carefully, examples of its resilience are everywhere, on the walls and between the cracks in the asphalt. Nature is just hidden; it needs to be rediscovered. Those natural shapes inspired the surface of the tapestry as a reminder of our fragile ecosystem.
Working daily with the school students on a handmade horizontal loom, using simple textile techniques and free experimentations, the group sorted locally recycled, biodegradable textiles and natural materials to be interwoven, sewn, and knotted into a communal three-dimensional tapestry.