Threads of the Anthropocene: A Tactile Archaeology of Place

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

As a Mauritian-born artist living on Gadigal land in Australia, my practice has long grappled with questions of place, displacement, and ecological transformation. During my time at the Saari Residence, I propose to develop a new body of work that responds to the landscape and ecological histories of Mynämäki and its surrounding region. The project is a continuation of my long-standing inquiry into place, transformation, and the layered interplay between land, memory, and human intervention. Drawing from the local environment, I will collect discarded or natural materials — fallen branches, offcut timber, rusted farm tools, textile remnants — to create hand-stitched textile works that function as both material archives and poetic gestures of ecological care. These works will be formed slowly and responsively through observation, conversation, and immersion in the seasonal cycles and local narratives of the region. Central to the method is the re-use of materials and an ethics of low-impact making. The tactile nature of stitching, layering, and dyeing will echo the subtle textures of the surrounding forests, wetlands, and farmlands — spaces marked by human use and environmental change. The approach will be one of “listening through making,” an intuitive archaeology that weaves together ecological observation, personal reflection, and the politics of land use. The work will be shaped by time spent walking, gathering, reading, and exchanging ideas with other residents and the local community. Thematically, the project draws connections between North and South, foregrounding how the climate crisis manifests across disparate landscapes — from rising seas and coral bleaching in Mauritius to bushfires in Australia and disappearing winters in Finland. It will culminate in a series of stitched textile pieces and written reflections that trace both the visible and invisible changes shaping the landscape of Mynämäki.