Your favourite pair of jeans are no longer wearable? So you wish to throw it out? Just like you, millions of others throw away their worn-out clothes, increasing waste in landfills. But wait, here’s someone who has made an Art of it!
While people are shifting towards recycling and donating clothes, British artist Ian Berry saw this as an opportunity to create art. One can often see him walking on a floor full of jeans in all kinds of blue, some even hanging on his walls. So what does he do? He uses old denim clothing to make artwork that looks like a picture or a painting at first glance.
Scenes in Shades of Blue
Berry works with portraits, landscapes, and scenes from daily life with his outstanding eye for detail. He picks obscure locations like launderettes or less popular pubs, the places lacking people. The thoughts behind these actions are simple- life is changing and people are leaving the places they used to occupy before, choosing newer hubs. His works have depth and texture and are often discussed in the context of multiple kinds of art, such as Fibre art, Quilting, Collage, and Arte Povera. The respect it gets as a unique work of art is unquestionable and evident, but its effect on the environment is valuable.
The artist’s choice of material was a big hit when the White Oak Plant in North Carolina closed down. The denim mill had been working for 112 years before stopping production, and some of its last selvedge denim fabric produce was used by Berry to create historic pieces that could be exhibited in shows for the generations to come.
Along with the preservation of this fabric, it was a big step towards the preservation of the environment by diverting the tonnes of residual cloth from waste channels. In his solo show in 2016, the gallery he showcased his work in had admired his expressive ways, “Ian Berry is an artist with something to say”, it was remarked. His work is the epitome of Recycling, Eco-Art, and Upcycling.
Spreading the work
Not limiting his work and views to his own, he also holds discussions around various parts of the world. Holding workshops is another way the artist is inspiring more of his kind. The places he has imparted his knowledge in include Sweden, USA, Brazil and more. His art has been showcased in various cities, like Portugal, Sweden, Fairmount, San Francisco, also, New Orleans. Moreover, magazines like Scholastic, BBC Newsround in the UK, Science and Vie, and National Geographic Brazil have written about the man included in Business News’s“30 under 30 influential artists in the World”.
Being a benevolent person at heart, the artist has also pursued companies around the world to help children and youngsters to learn Denim Art by donating scissors, rotary cutters, and denim.
Berry has been doing his work since the early 2010s and has received great success. This way, his contribution to environmental work has also been significant.
According to a report by Ellen MacArthur Foundation, if the current trend of 18.6 million tonnes of textile wastage continues, 150 million of it will be dumped in landfills by 2050. Their mismanagement pollutes the air and water and landfills overflow because of that. While companies and brands are coming up with better ways to handle their surplus, it is still impossible to undo the detrimental but inevitable wastage in the production of a clothing item. Ian Berry’s actions are inspiring, useful, and beneficial in the art as well as climate aspects.
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