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Sculpture

The Aftermath Sculpture is a large-scale art advocacy installation that explores the environmental and public health impacts of textile waste.

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Exhibit Photographs

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QR Codes

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Exhibit Description

Image by Lukas Blazek

Impact Evaluation

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Tour and Press

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Host the Sculpture

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Exhibit Photographs

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Exhibit Description

Aftermath (2021) by artist Mark Cooper is an experiment in interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and pedagogy. Spearheaded by developmental psychologist and social activist Julia DeVoy, and public health researcher and long-time collaborator Dielle Lundberg, the work’s various components—including the landfill simulating reactors, the display armature, the Textile Waste Facts online learning modules, and the QR codes—have been sourced from an expansive network of scientific and design-based work executed by Boston College professors and students in disciplines as far-flung as applied psychology, art, engineering, environmental science and education.

 

The goal: to face up to a global economy of throwaway consumption that disproportionately pollutes countries in the Global South. The call to action: visit textilewastefacts.com or scan the QR codes throughout the sculpture to take a 30-minute crash course investigating textile waste as an environmental justice issue in the United States and globally. This course is designed to provide learners with the most important facts about textile pollution and to help them identify opportunities to change their own behavior and support systemic and structural changes.

Aftermath proposes that the spaces art inhabits—whether gallery, studio, or classroom—have already begun to be polluted by spaces outside their sanitized, contemplative environs, from landfill to boutique store to laboratory. But Aftermath points to generative possibilities too, framing the museum as an experimental laboratory for forging cross-disciplinary and decidedly collaborative dialogues to help intervene in planetary crises, from uneven health disparities to environmental racism.

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Tour and Press

Tour

Exhibition at Boston University Charles River Campus

Boston, Massachusetts
October - December 2022

Exhibition at Boston University School of Public Health

Boston, Massachusetts
September - October 2022 (link)

Exhibition at ACCelerate Festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Washington D.C.

March 2022 (link)

Exhibition at McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College

January - March 2022 (link)

Press

"Have you thought about the environmental impact of fast fashion?"

Feature on Aftermath and Interview with Dr. Julia DeVoy

NBC LX News | March 5, 2023 (link)

"The Aftermath of Fast Fashion:
How Discarded Clothes Impact Public Health and the Environment"

Boston University School of Public Health | September 22, 2022 (link)

"We’re Not Going to Recycle Our Way Out of This Problem"

Boston University School of Public Health | April 30, 2022 (link)

"Aftermath Textile & Bioreactor Sculpture at BC McMullen Museum"

Boston College | February 1, 2022 (link)

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QR Codes

Protest signs throughout the Aftermath installation have QR codes embedded in them, which link to content on this site.

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Sign #1

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Sign #4

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Sign #7

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Sign #2

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Sign #5

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Sign #8

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Sign #3

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Sign #6

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Sign #9

Image by Lukas Blazek

Impact Evaluation

The Aftermath installation has an on-site tablet for soliciting reaction and feedback on the exhibit. 

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Host the Sculpture

The Aftermath Sculpture is looking for universities, libraries, and community centers to host the exhibit in 2023-2024.

Email our team at textilewastefacts@bc.edu to explore possibilities.

Exhibition Details:

The sculpture is made up of 1 central tower (4 feet wide x 4 feet deep x 7 feet tall) and 2 smaller towers (4 feet wide x 4 feet deep x 5.5 feet tall). The sculpture can be configured to fit diverse spaces but is typically approximately 20 feet wide x 10 feet deep x 10 feet tall

More information about artist Mark Cooper's work can be found here.

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