Research project.
Studio Rat engages ongoingly with their collaborative research project Making-With Plastic, a multi-year investigation that began in response to the duo’s complicated relation to plastic. Reflecting on the pervasive reality of plastics in our landscape, Making-With Plastic explores traditional textile arts and fibre crafts by challenging the material origins of these practices and connecting them with art-making in our age of disposability and consumerism.
With support from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2022, the duo collaborated with 7 artists across Canada to reimagine ways of making-with accumulated plastic. The artists Habiba El Esaad, Jessica Mak, Masumi Rodriguez, Willow Sharp, Brenda Shivanandan, Janelle Sookhai and Orit Zewge-Abubaker were invited to repurpose Studio Rat’s waste materials into art objects and useful things.
Artworks by Habiba El Esaad, Jessica Mak, Masumi Rodriguez, Willow Sharp, Brenda Shivanandan, Janelle Sookhai and Orit Zewge-Abubaker.
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.