Textile Waste Facts
A free 30-minute course about global textile pollution, environmental justice, and structural solutions created by the Aftermath Learning Lab in partnership with MFC Tie-Dye Inc. and the MFI Foundation. Learn more.

Exhibit Photographs









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.

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)

QR Codes

Impact Evaluation

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.