World domination meets wearable art

A tactile exhibition of fabrics in the Darwin CBD forms the final assessment component of Charles Darwin University Master of Creative Arts student Anna Reynolds.

The “Plans for World Domination – art to textile” exhibition marks the culmination of a six-year post-graduate research effort to comprehend the impact that digital technology has had on human culture.

“Without having access to, and being able to manipulate these transcendent technologies, it is very hard to participate in the contemporary world,” Anna said.

“My research looks at the environmental costs of the rise of digital technology, and at the same time looks at the way it enables and promotes people like myself – as ‘small makers’.

“I make a small range of unique textiles out of (mostly hand-woven) natural fibres and I’m making wearable art one piece at a time.”

Anna said she imported the fabrics mainly from traditional weavers in South-East Asia and India and then applied dying and printing techniques to create unique pieces that helped document her research into how digital technologies have come to dominate the modern world.

“A document that accompanies the exhibition explains all the processes that my artwork goes through at every stage of its evolution,” Anna said.

“It also documents how my own practise has changed since I bought a computer and started engaging with that world.”

Anna said that before entering the digital space she “pretty much was sitting under a tree making puppets for kids”, creating paintings by hand and developing her photographic prints in a darkroom.

“My whole relationship with creating digital art came from the time I first contemplated doing a Master by research process on exploring digital cultures, the effect they have on our world, and how we operate within them.”

The exhibition is at Shop 13 Air Raid Arcade, 35 Cavenagh Street, Darwin CBD until Friday 14 December.