Soft Monuments is an ongoing series of large-scale sewn fabric collages that memorialize human connections to glacial ice. Utilizing cyanotype, a light-sensitive solution that turns a deep blue when exposed to UV light, I create fabric “blueprints” of glacier processes. I make these in the field, creating photographic prints on and around glaciers. Back in my studio, I continue to create cyanotype fabric prints using photographic negatives and found materials from the field, collaging and sewing these prints into flag-like tapestries that range in size from 2ft to 8ft across.
Drawing on flags as modes of communication and signifiers of cultural identity, and quilts as handmade memory-keepers, these textiles signal intimate connections between humans and glacial systems across distance. Eventually the works will be displayed in an immersive installation that viewers can move through, paired with public cross-disciplinary events and workshops, offering opportunities for a wide audience to contemplate the past, present, and future of glaciers.
