After a long career in fashion as a designer and trendforecaster Femke van Gemert felt a growing awareness about the enormous amounts of textiles produced and discarded around the world. It made her change her approach to textile, and completely changed her artistic process.
Now Femke creates hangings, tapestries, installations and objects made out of recycled textiles and other waste materials.
These textiles come from various sources and reflect our extensive consumerist behaviour. As an artist her goal is to create art without the use of virgin materials. The beauty of imperfection and deterioration over time are always visible in Femke van Gemert’s creations. The scraps used in her works show sentimental encounters and intimate connections with other peoples lives and put the discovery of other cultures and nature at the core of the anthropological textile art of Femke van Gemert.
Femke creates autonomous works and site specific designs on commission, and initiates projects with local textile waste and communities. With these projects she raises awareness about waste and engages people to recycle and upcycle discarded materials in craft workshops. Besides her work as an artist Femke works as a teacher at several art and design schools.
Femke van Gemert is joining us for WDCDMX GNP 2021 thanks to the support from the EU Delegation and the Embassy of The Netherlands in Mexico.