Mend + Transform + Renew: Reactivating and (re)imagining pre and post consumer textile waste

The intention of this paper is to identify mending as an artistic practice able to function as a tool for creation, transformation and (re)imagination. The discussion will contextualize my practice as an artist and designer working with pre and post consumer textile waste in relation to mending as an artistic practice. From the tools I utilize to the artisanal applications I explore, Vancouver has influenced my use of mending as tool for investigating, creating and (re)imagining discarded clothing and textile industry waste. My research uncovers how mending contributes to the construction of identity through a non-consumption based practice where I focus upon reactivating and transforming the discarded, devalued and obsolete. I position my thesis in alignment with Otto Von Busch’s theory on Fashion Hactivism alongside artists such as Michael Swaine, Liz Collins, Eleanor Ray, Jonnet Middleton and TomofHolland. As part of the growing discourse surrounding mending, transformation and reactivation, my role as a mending practitioner draws upon the ability to tune in, observe and reverse engineer from a set of limited resources and circumstances where I can (re)imagine and allow the invisible to become visible.