Textile artist Deborah Kruger takes her medium to a new level with dramatic, large-scale artworks. Visit her website to see more of her portfolio.
“REDWING” (2024) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, waxed linen thread, 60″ x 110″ x 2″
Since childhood I have loved wandering in wild places. The peace and tranquility of the natural world has soothed me and inspired me. Birdsong is my favorite soundtrack. Even though I was born in New York City, I gravitated to nature. Near our apartment building in Queens, there was an enormous boulder. I climbed on it whenever I could. Later, I found a swamp near our home and I spent hours walking through the reeds.
“RE-DRESS” (2022) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, sewing, fabric, wrapping, constructed with building foam and papier-mâché, 75″ x 24″ x 24″
I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when I was a young woman. I was horrified to learn about the impacts of DDT on birds. This early influence became a focus of my environmental awareness and eventually my art.
“BROKEN” (2018) broken ceramic plates hand-painted with drawings of endangered birds and building rubble, 80″ diameter x 11″
Although Rachel Carson’s book spawned the international ecology movement, we have not taken her warnings to heart. Birds around the world are now threatened with extinction.
“ROPA ARCO IRIS” (2023) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, waxed linen thread, 53″ X 45″ X 2″
I grew up in an immigrant household that spoke a now endangered language. As I acquired additional languages, I realized how much culture and wisdom is embedded in each language.
“KIMONO 2″ (2022) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, waxed linen and wire thread, oilstick, bamboo, 60″ x 39″ x 3”
This sensibility helped me make the connection between the loss of species and the concurrent loss of indigenous languages. Both are victims of our relentless drive for consumption and development.
“RED VESSEL” (2022) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, sewing, fabric, wrapping, constructed with building foam and papier-mâché, 83″ x 23″ x 23″
These pressures have gradually reduced the wilderness, impacting loss of species especially birds as well as indigenous cultures, both of which suffer from loss of habitat. In my artwork I try to integrate these concerns by hand screen painting text in endangered languages over images of endangered birds. Some of the text are excerpts of Silent Spring that appear in English, Spanish and now Italian in advance of my exhibition in Northern Italy next summer.
“BLACKBIRD” (2024) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, fabric, waxed linen thread, 65″ x 128″ x 2″
Fast forward several decades. Now I devote my art practice to making monumental feathered artwork that laments the loss of birds and other vulnerable species.
“DESCENT” (2024) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, fabric, waxed linen thread, 80″ X 31″ X 2″
I work with recycled materials and include as many handmade techniques as possible, since so many of these are threatened as well. I honor the generations of women makers who worked in obscurity by intentionally using drawing, sewing, screen printing, wrapping and weaving in my work.
“DEVOTIONAL” (2021) hand screen-printing on recycled plastic, hand and machine sewing, wrapping, waxed linen thread, sisal, 100″ x 179″ x 6″
Although I make smaller, more affordable art, making artwork on a grand scale feels important. I want to amplify my voice as a woman working with textiles. And I want to give voice to voiceless species that are struggling to survive.
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