[Re]Configured Threads: Rethinking Use and Aesthetic in Textile Waste

‘Waste’ can refer to many things. Time squandered and lost, perishable foods purchased and never eaten, or things no longer deemed useful that are disposed of. It’s subjective, and seemingly finite. One can learn from time lost and expired goods, moving forward with a new understanding on how to avoid both becoming waste. And yet, once reached, the waste stage of an object’s life cycle remains connotatively inflexible, permanent, and repellent. Bella Stern’s work is a refusal of this rigid condemnation. ‘[Re]Configured Threads’ confronts this structure in specific regard to the fashion industry’s destructive understanding of waste. Through repurposing discarded textiles by joining them with mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, Bella alters the parameters for what is ‘useful’ and what is ‘valuable’. Her regenerative and functional creations demonstrate how shifting our understanding of waste can breathe new life into discarded materials, effectively unmaking our anthropocentric understanding of garment lifecycles. By crafting decorative homeware with reclaimed goods, Bella redefines what it means for something to be useful, offering an innovative solution to reframe our individual understandings of the toxic cycle of fashion consumption.

Her approach deconstructs our emotional detachment from waste, newness, and uniformity, encouraging us to reconsider our role as consumers in an ever-growing cycle of waste production. Each piece is meant to question conventional perspectives and aesthetics towards the finite and uniform. In this series she unpacks consumption habits and processes by creating individual household objects, each meant to live as long as the consumer wishes, and then be composted to rejoin the Earth. Through this reimagined relationship, this exhibit seeks to transform our approach to waste into a more regenerative, mindful practice.

Curated by Milana Stewart

Artwork and Exhibition Design by Bella Stern