Eva Neves

Depending on the Cotton is a project that meditates on the history of cotton and its influences on our culture. The project uses prints on various materials made with cotton fibers to tell a narrative about the connections between slavery, the industrial revolution and cotton’s roots in the East. The prints also highlight the parallels in cotton’s history and the current conditions of laborers. They are quilted and displayed so that viewers become makers by adding loose prints to the piece through sewing or pinning. This participation represents the labor that goes into cotton’s transformation from plant to fabric, and will allow viewers to express their personal relationship with the material. In order to create an immersive experience, a radio play narrates my research. Each print is inspired by a moment in the radio play.