In the exhibition Backstitch, Nicole Young explored themes of community and the gift economy. Backstitch was a large scale art piece resembling a quilt, created from sewing together hand dyed textiles. All of the textiles in the work were a mix of materials that were donated to the artist by a community member, or that have been dyed and stained using plant matter gifted to her.
Young’s work took on a large shift in both style and form, as she is an environmental activist and advocates for the zero waste movement. Young noticed a disconnect between her work as an environmentalist and her work as an artist, because painting in acrylics is essentially painting with plastic. In order to bring these two facets together cohesively, she switched from using acrylic paints to creating inks and dyes out of plant matter. Since making this switch, Young has received an overwhelming amount of support from the community – family, friends, colleagues and strangers have been offering her inks that they make, plants from their gardens and food waste to use for dyeing, and leftover textiles that they have no use for.
The title Backstitch refers to one of the strongest, most adaptable, and permanent hand stitches used in the tradition of sewing. A community is its strongest and most adaptable when members support one another, and this installation piece was a visual representation of the value in offering gifts freely to one another.
Young took this project as an opportunity to engage with the community through art making, and to create a singular art piece at a much larger scale than she had ever worked before. It also posed a challenge for her as to how to approach her work, given that there was contributions from community members. While fabric has always played an integral role in her work, she had never used it in a way that relies so heavily on the generosity of others. Young was interested to see how the pieces of fabric would fit together and relate to one another. Her broader goal with this project is to continue exhibiting this installation piece at other galleries, adding more fabric to it at each gallery that she brings it to.