If anyone asked me to describe myself in one word, I would say, “curious.” It doesn’t take much incentive for me to become interested in most subjects. The one thing I look for when researching or learning about new things is how it relates to other topics (this is why I’m studying Quantitative Finance at Stevens; what other subject was going to afford me opportunity to understand the intersection of so many different topics — math, statistics, finance, economics and computer science — under one umbrella?) So you can imagine my absolute intrigue when I came upon the Tempestry Project, which combines art in the form of crocheting and climate change awareness!
Named for the combination of the words “temperature” and “tapestry,” the Tempestry Project seeks to provide a visual understanding of climate change around the world. Launched by Justin Connelly, Marissa Connelly, and Emily McNeil, the project reveals the innate human need to map or chart the information we can understand about our surroundings can be immediately discerned from the simple yet cohesive displays of colored fabric. The Original Tempestries are crocheted in such a way that every line of crocheting corresponds to a color assigned to a certain temperature range. The New Normal Tempestries are designed the same way, the only difference being that instead of stitching a temperature color every day, each stitch is for the average temperature for a year. This way it becomes possible to see the evolution of average yearly temperature for centuries through color coding. The appeal of the tempestries lies not only in the satisfactory stitching but the tactility of the material, inviting viewers to interact with their creations.
The Tempestry Project is not the first artistic endeavor to combine textiles and temperature. The Knitting Map, created in 2005 by Jools Gilson, sought to represent data about climate change through fabric. The installation itself is much larger than the line by line stitches of temperature achieved by the Tempestry Project and goes to show that art is simply the practical achievement of our imaginations.
There are many more examples of artists integrating their passion for climate change awareness and environmental accountability into their artworks. Crochet Coral Reef is an art installation that imitates different corals in an effort to bring awareness to the decreasing size of coral reefs around the world due to climate change. It brings about another intersection, bridging environmental change and crocheting with hyperbolic geometry (involved in the creation of these highly complex fabric structures) and Darwinian evolution (relevant in understanding the ever evolving nature of the reefs themselves).
My favorite artist within the intersection of climate change awareness and art is Alexis Rockman, whose fantastical and intense paintings caught the attention of the makers of one of my favorite movies, Life of Pi. Normally, concept art for movies are meant to be realistic for the benefit of movie makers, however, Alexis Rockman was chosen for the meaningfulness he brought to his artwork. The images he created to help influence the movie design brought an element of otherworldliness necessary for the fantastical nature of Pi’s tale.
The Doodling Duck is an Opinion culture column written and created by Pooja Rajadurai to discuss art as it relates to pop culture, trends, and students.
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