How do artists use fabric to challenge anthropocentric worldviews?

In contemporary art, fabric has emerged as a powerful medium to question anthropocentrism—the belief that humans are the central focus of existence. Textile artists manipulate cloth, thread, and fibers to create works that highlight the interconnectedness of all life forms, often contrasting the fragility of human dominance with the resilience of nature.

By repurposing discarded textiles or using organic materials, artists like Sheila Hicks and El Anatsui transform fabric into large-scale installations that evoke ecological imbalance. Their work critiques consumerism and waste, urging viewers to reconsider humanity’s exploitative relationship with the environment.

Other creators employ soft sculptures to challenge hierarchies, crafting non-human forms—such as hybrid creatures or decaying landscapes—that symbolize the collapse of human superiority. Through tactile, mutable fabrics, these artists destabilize rigid worldviews, proposing a more humble, entangled existence with the non-human world.

Ultimately, fabric art becomes a metaphor for impermanence and interdependence, weaving narratives that dismantle anthropocentric assumptions stitch by stitch.