Eco Art on Island: Environmental Research Through an Artist-in-Residence Project on Governors Island

By Nina Edwards

"Eco Art on Island is a research-based visual art project developed during my 2025 Artist-in-Residence with the Taiwanese American Arts Council (TAAC) on Governors Island. The project investigates the environmental impact of fast fashion, focusing on marine pollution, coral bleaching, textile waste, and excessive water consumption, while examining how illustration and painting can operate as research methodologies within sustainability discourse.

The project employs painting as both process and outcome, integrating fashion imagery, environmental data, and narrative symbolism. A recurring mermaid figure functions as a research device—serving as witness, victim, and agent of change within compromised marine ecosystems. Early works in the series, including Bleached Mermaid and Fading Mermaid, visualize the consequences of synthetic dyes, microplastics, industrial runoff, and mass textile disposal. These works are informed by documented industry statistics related to textile waste, recycling rates, and water usage, grounding the imagery in empirical environmental research.

The later phase of the project, represented by Renewed Mermaid, shifts toward sustainability and recovery. Fabric scraps and patchwork elements incorporated into the paintings reference up-cycling, circular design strategies, and material reuse. This visual transition reflects a research trajectory that moves from exposing environmental harm to proposing speculative frameworks for ecological repair and responsible consumption.

Governors Island provides a critical interdisciplinary context for this research due to its ecological landscape and concentration of environmental and cultural institutions. Public engagement is central to the project and includes a lecture on sustainable fashion practices, open studio sessions, and dialogue with visitors. These interactions extend the research beyond studio production, positioning the artwork as an educational interface between creative practice and environmental studies.

Presented at the Pratt Institute Research Open House, Eco Art on Island demonstrates how illustration-based research can contribute to sustainability scholarship, public pedagogy, and socially engaged art practice within an academic context."