In the words of the artist: “Set in a dystopian future where the agricultural economy has collapsed due to rampant forest fires, a young woman uses her ingenuity and skills to survive. In this re-telling of the ancient Greek myth, Persephone eats the pomegranate for it’s healing and nourishing properties not as banishment from the living world. She fashions her clothing out of organic materials and protects herself from the caustic smoke with a respirator mask filled with purifying herbs. My intent is to offer an alternative to the reductive post-apocalyptic fictions depicted in Hollywood films, which exploit the drama of natural catastrophes to manipulate our current fears about environmental degradation.”

Nicole Dextras used seed pods from maple trees in her “Maple Flapper Jumper.” Although many of us think of maple trees as a ubiquitous feature of the landscape, nearly a third of all maple species are under threat of extinction in their native habitats according to a study of maple tree species published by BGCI. The BGCI report, entitled “The Red List of Maples,” was published in 2009 and analyzed 191 species of maple. Of the species covered in the report, 54 were considered at risk as of the date of publication and an additional 29 species were deemed likely to become threatened in the near future.

In the words of the artist: “The Botanical Wearables segment of my current body of work began with the Weedrobes series, which consists of dresses made from fresh flowers and leaves. The work examines issues of sustainability, consumerism and the fashion industry. . . . This series began as humble desire to combine live plant materials with my personal experience with fashion, which includes growing up in a store and working in a garment factory. Beginning in 2005, every summer I experimented with techniques to create a completely compostable wearable garment. I adapted basket-weaving methods and through trial and error learned much about the local plants at my disposal. As I mastered the technical aspects of the Weedrobes I began to stage street interventions with the garments such as Laurel Suffragette on Robson Street in 2011, in order to discuss issues of fast fashion. . .” Learn more about this series of work in this short documentary video.

For “The Little Green Dress Projekt,” Nicole Dextras made a series of dresses entirely from organic materials and left them outdoors to decompose. At the end of the project, she composted the residual organic material, completing the natural life cycle of the garments. Composting plays a critical role in keeping food and other organic waste out of our landfills. When organic waste decomposes in a landfill, the underlying nutrients are not returned to our farmland, and methane is released into the atmosphere by anaerobic bacteria. This outcome contributes to climate change because methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. In contrast, composting processes can be used to transform organic waste into useful resources that can enrich our soils and generate renewable fuels. As municipalities worldwide search for sustainable solutions to organic waste streams, many are turning to aerobic composting processes and anaerobic digestion facilities that capture methane. Learn more about the importance and remarkable potential of these solutions in this TED talk by Paul Sellew.

In a series of landscape interventions, Nicole Dextras installed large-scale words made of ice and left them to melt. The melting process adds meaning to these works, which are powerful reminders of climate change. Watch this short video to see time lapse footage of “Consume” melting away, and zoom into the image to see other works from this series.

In her “Frozen Textiles” series, Nicole Dextras suspends garments in blocks of ice, often working in remote locations where the completed projects leave behind no trace. In the words of the artist: “The clothing encased in ice takes on a skeletal quality comparable to a forensic examination under a microscope; seams and buttons serve as clues to an internalized landscape which appears impenetrable one moment and precariously fragile the next. It is a shape shifter that speaks of our place in nature and the relationship of our bodies to the land. On a deeper level, the mercurial aspect of ice alludes to the transient nature of the environment and of the inherent poetic beauty of the ephemeral.”

In the words of the artist: “IceShifts is a series of photographs consisting of garments and botanicals frozen into large blocks of ice. Heads, hands and reproductive organs are substituted with plant materials and each title relates to a women’s name derived from a plant. Though it may have been a Victorian conceit to name girls after pretty flowers, here the plants signify a more rooted relationship to the biological environment.”

Nicole Dextras uses natural materials to create ephemeral installations and botanical garments that celebrate sustainability and our connection to nature. If you are inspired by her work, you can take action in your own life. Select one or more pledges listed below and spread the word. You can also learn more by visiting our Pledge Center. Let’s #EndOvershoot and save our #OneEarth.