Existing comment:
Will the Future Be Handmade?
Making things by hand is slow compared to machine production. Craft has value in itself, though. It connects us to the past and provides an alternative to an on-demand consumer culture.
These values lie at the heart of textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez's work. He seeks to preserve the traditions of the Zapotec people of Southern Mexico in ways that speak to modern life. The title of his series Ofrenda means "offering," a tribute to the binding together of past, present, and future.
Scholar and designer Elisa Palomino is also adapting traditional techniques in indigo dyeing, pattern making, and material use to meet modern needs. She has worked to bring fish skin into the fashion industry, collaborating with anthropologists at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and indigenous makers in Alaska and Japan. Their collaboration aims to transform ocean waste into high-value products. |