Textiles for a Slower Future

❀ A Conversation with Anna Cain ❀


Anna Cain is a future-oriented interdisciplinary textile artist who is interested in utilizing biology and ecology to reform the fashion industry. Working with biomaterials and natural dyes, she aims to simultaneously dismantle and re-create the current systems of textile production while fostering new networks of collaboration and care. We met in a biomaterials working group at Genspace, a community lab in Brooklyn while still in school. Now, she is finishing up at Fabricademy Barcelona, where was speaking to me from for this interview.



CA: Starting off, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are now?


AC: Well, my name is Anna and there are a few different phrases I have been using to describe my art. Sometimes I say art for the symbiocene, the post-anthropocene, which goes along with saying I am a future-oriented sustainable textiles designer, because I like to imagine my projects in a futuristic space. I also like to use biology and ecology to try and reform the fashion industry in some way, whether that's through the materials themselves or the systems, or the dyes. Also, a lot of my work has been pretty community oriented, whether that's through connecting people with common interests or taking an educational standpoint on sustainability sometimes, or the other topics I like to focus on such as natural dyes and biomaterials.

I went to Parsons and I didn’t know what to study, I thought maybe fine art and I’ve always been interested in the fashion industry. But learning more about it I just got turned off from the traditional fashion industry, because of its terrible environmental degradation and also human rights aspects. It just feels like a constant churning of clothes, making, consumption that I really didn’t want to be a part of. I’ve always been interested in environmental studies, and I did have a bit of an inkling of interest for science, but I thought I would never pursue it because I considered myself a creative person, and not a math/science person. I thought it would always be something shut off for me, but learning more about fashion sustainability made me realize how everything is connected. Our clothes come from fibers that are farmed in the earth. Studying all these systems more made me really open my mind to how I could fit these two interests a lot more, and it kind of just developed into a fine art practice. I was creating homemade natural materials and studying more about biology in order to grow materials, and just learning how science can be used in creative and artistic ways.

The school I currently attend in Barcelona is specifically focused on technology and beginner science for textile design and fabrication. We’re learning a lot of new methods to fabricate things like computational design, 3D modeling software, and machines like laser cutters/3D printers, and how these things can be used with more sustainable materials. Looking at things like natural dyes and biomaterials in order to make textiles for the fashion industry. That last part is a bit open ended because textiles can be used in so many places, not only the fashion industry.



Can you tell me about your work? How would you describe your practice?


My practice is exploratory, and I like to keep it as local as possible. I’m interested in working small scale, and slow, and connecting with the people around me. I attempt to work as local as possible and if I’m not I like to pay attention to where the materials I’m working with are coming from. I think that will be a huge key in sustainable fashion in general, and sustainable production in general.


Do you consider your practice to be multidisciplinary?


Yeah definitely, that is probably my favorite part about it. Sometimes I get nervous that I won’t be able to fit into a certain career because I feel a bit scattered all over the place, but I also just so fascinated by everything and I just love tapping into new knowledge and being able to combine it into my artwork.




How do you relate to other species within your work?


For materials and dyes I like to examine what is around me, and trying to see what resources I have at hand that wouldn’t be considered resources normally and be considered waste. One example would be collecting plants that would normally be considered weeds from the empty lot near my apartment and using them for natural dye. I would say learning more about other species has helped me to connect with them. Like learning names of plants, learning their properties, how plants got here, if they are native or not, finding how we both ended up in this place.

My experience of working with other organisms has been with bacteria, fungi, and silkworms. In terms of working with the silkworms, it was learning how to center their needs either equal or first to mine. I was observing and studying them and trying to connect with them. Checking up on them, being very in tune with their health and how they are handling the environment. Viewing them as not just resources or something to extract but as a gift, something to be cherished. There is a lot of care and thought that goes into the interaction, instead of just taking, taking, taking. I wanted to figure out how I could give them a platform  to contribute to the design and show their design tendencies in the product.




What was the end product of the project?

Physically, it was a kind of top. I had a bigger plan for that project but I ended up having to use my second prototype as the final because I had to work on their timeline, which was not the same as my timeline. I had to put their health first, and they were not producing silk in the way that I needed them to and I had to just respect that because it's their life.

I had to just use the second prototype that I made, which I was still happy with because it was an exploration of just letting them run wild with this design. I put down this surface for them to walk on and they covered the whole thing. The surface I had them working on was in order to prevent them from cocooning, but it had some divets because it was based on a human body mold and there were some places they were able to crawl under and cocoon themselves. I let the cocoon stay on but I peeled it off eventually once the moth came out. It was more of a test to see what the worms would do on the torso of a human, and let them drag their spit across it to see what they would make. There were so many takeaways, other than the physical piece, that came from working with them. Such as learning about their lifestyle and how to live with another organism, how to take care of them etc. The whole history of silk is insanely fascinating and it's wild that these little tiny worms spit out this fiber that is so long and strong and a wonderful material. We should just maybe reconsider how we extract it.


Would you say that working with them changed your perspective about ways that you relate with other species?

Yeah I think so. I have never really been one to connect with animals that much, my family always liked our pets more than me. But my silkworms I was so attached to. It felt like our lifestyles became so entwined. I was dreaming about silkworms every night. I would feed them in the morning when I first woke up, when I came home from school and at night. I was constantly cleaning their tank and they were in my bedroom, so we had no boundaries. It was just me and these worms living together. I did really care for them and I think they’re cute, some people maybe wouldn’t agree.

I think I was finding a lot of metaphors with how they live. The process of metamorphosis is so beautiful. The first time I saw one emerge as a moth I was so amazed. It’s such a crazy process to witness firsthand.



How do you think humans can change the way they relate to other species?

I would say noticing and quiet listening are things that have helped me, as well as slowing down. I just see the human world as more fast paced and we are so consumed in all of the ideas that we set up for ourselves. We are not super grounded in the timeline of the ecosystem we are in, which is usually a slower pace.

Being able to identify plants has helped me feel more grounded, and sitting in silence when you are around other things that are alive. A lot of times things are small, and you need to stop and get down and really pay attention to the beauty and intricacy of the little things around you. Being around larger animals is also mind blowing to me, because being in a city can make you forget that there are larger animals than you. I went snorkeling once and saw a manta ray and I was in disbelief and thought, I have been in New York too long, and I can’t believe there is a massive rug animal swimming under me right now.



Do you think that artists can play a role in the process of developing new ways to relate with other species as well as with each other?  


Yes I definitely do. Art is about shaking people from their routines, we are lost in our ideas and societal structures. Art is a way to rattle your head and show you there is more to the world.

The world we designed is so human centric, and art is a way to introduce people to new ideas. It doesn't have to be like this and hasn't always been like this, in terms of indigenous communities etc.




Do you think it is important to have an ecologically situated art or design practice when working from times such as ours? 



I find it super important. But I don’t think everyone needs to be this way, there is a lot of fascinating art that is not ecologically focused. But I think it will really benefit everyone to become more ecologically grounded. I think the more artists and producers focus on this, the better off we will be. This is a very crucial time for action with the climate crisis. Artists can definitely assist in rallying people around ideas and actions.


How do you see your practice evolving in the future?

I’ve been learning so much more and been introduced to so many topics that are fascinating to me that sometimes it’s hard to figure out what road to go down. I’ve been really inspired to try and make art that combines these things. I also think that a main intention of mine in the future is healing, making to promote healing in myself and other people, and the communities I’m in. I’ve been thinking more about what I would like to contribute to the world. I have a ton of planet placements in Cancer and I really think it's my destiny to care a lot.

I would love to work in a local, collaborative way,and have an educational and community aspect to my work. A lot of my art is just building a fantasy world where there is more symbiosis between humans and other species.


What would be an ideal project for you?


I love working on personalized and one of a kind things, fast fashion is so disposable and we are so detached from the things we buy and own. Creating clothing that is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and that is saturated with so much meaning is super beautiful. My dream would be to make custom pieces for people that are very tailored to their needs and where they are at in their journey. Based on the plants that are used in the materials and dyes, and the artwork, which would be very specific to them, and represents the kind of qualities that they are trying to bring into their lives.



Why do you think it is important to develop new kinds of materials?


Our current production mostly consists of monocultures, the percentage of cotton and polyester is so much greater than anything else. The key to sustainability will be to diversify and localize, looking at what's around us and making more small-scale materials from those resources. Having small production for many different kinds of materials that are accessible to you is a way more sustainable practice than what we do now. It’s important to explore how different materials can be used for products, moving away from just churning out all of this cotton that is so harsh on the environment and all of these polyesters and other synthetics which we cannot rely on because it's fossil fuel based. It requires a lot of innovation because  we've spent so much time streamlining these systems and building so much technology around them, with all of these people integrated into them. We need to start to dismantle that and reassemble into decentralized textile systems❀