FROM DOMINICA and AUSTRIA

WHAT’S GOING ON: Abstract patterns with marbled, veiny textures upon closer inspection appear to be swaths of fabric, rags, and clothes spattered about in a dramaturgically arrange chaos. Sometimes they are organized into imagery reminiscent of body organs, sometimes into figures of people. At other times, they serve as a background to bustling city scenes, where humanity hurries about. Vast, ever-expanding, those bales of clothing grow in size until they can overtake landscapes, both rural and metropolitan, effectively turning the country into an overspilling laundry basket. The body of work of Dominica-born, Austria-based artist Pauline Marcelle is informed by her constant reflection on the practice of exporting used clothing from the West to the non-industrialized countries to be sold at the markets. Overreaching demand by far, those clothes have become a pollutant that slowly but inevitably overtakes the otherwise still pristine topography of their new homes, and risks enveloping the planet like an ever-growing cocoon.

WHO MADE IT: Pauline Marcelle was born in the small island nation of Dominica, grew up in New York City, and then went to get her MFA from the legendary Die Angewandte in Vienna. She has been working and living between Austria and Dominica ever since. However, her aesthetic awakening was linked to the trips Marcelle made to Ghana and South Africa, where she encountered the intriguing apparel economy firsthand. Comparing the consumerist societies where unwanted clothes are discarded at will and the way their cast-offs are reintegrated into entirely different communities, not necessarily with respect to their underlying structures, filled Marcelle with a fascination. She has since been using heaps of textiles as the underlying basis for her artwork. She recreates the fabric in her pieces using paint that she produces herself, or integrates them into the canvas piece by piece. Sometimes, she uses a striking palette where primary colors intermingle with the muted, at other times, resorts to all white. She centers the garments or lets them frame the dramatic human figures. But one thing remains Marcelle’s artworks, especially in her latest collection, “Bend Down Boutique,” are fascinating interpretations of the global garment industry and the way it influences the environments to change across the globe.

WHY DO WE CARE: For those of us living in the industrialized countries, the idea of “sustainably” discarding gently used garments is a comforting one. It seems to allow a near-constant chain of consumption, where changing fashions dictate when a clothing item needs to be swapped for a more current one. But what makes the idea palatable is the lack of awareness of what actually happens to the “recycled” clothing. Capitalist means made possible by othering? No big surprise. But the truth is that a considerable part of those clothes ends up in markets in the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where Sharon’s dirty thirty custom t-shirt and Bob’s retirement Hawaiian shirt compete for a new life. This, no doubt, allows African hipsters, artists, and fashionistas to be resourceful and ironic, with plenty of material to scavenge. But the broader implications of the practice of Western hand-me-downs in effect paralyzes local clothing production, which in many African countries is very accomplished and superior to the cheaply made high street fashions. It also causes excessive accumulation of garment waste. And while there are effective ways to repurpose any rag, once a ton of useless castoffs starts lying around somewhere in a seaside market in Mozambique, it’s a short while before the garments are incorporated into a landfill or thrown into the sea. In choosing this issue to become the underlining concern of her works, Pauline Marcelle managed to hit an important issue and a very tender spot in the giant capitalist contamination carapace that surrounds the planet but will cave in any minute.