Overview of Textile Arts/Design in Habitable Places: A Beauty to Behold in the Built Environment

Abstract

Textiles can be categorized into utilitarian and aesthetic. Utilitarian textiles are used for practical purposes. In contrast, aesthetic textiles focus on artistic expressions like textile installations for artistic and educational purposes in built environments. However, many people often overlook the use of textile installation art as decorative elements in their surroundings. Textile installations have come to pose some challenges to the conventional 2D textile design in that they are found in most art exhibitions and museums. Nevertheless, this has brought forth results in designs which are unexpected. In line with this, they are used to decorate the built environment. This paper is predicated on the fact that these installations have not been sufficiently practiced and paid attention to by artists and designers in Nigeria. Therefore, this study highlights the new and innovative ways in which textiles have been showcased by textile artists, sculptors and some painters who have begun to dim the boundaries between textile design and other aspects of art. It looks at the relationships between textiles and the environment, new technologies and techniques that artists are adapting to transform an environment aesthetically and instructively using textiles. It also looked at the shift of some textile artists/designers from concentrating on surface design to manipulation of form and structure of a fabric and how that manipulation can result in larger 3D designs which can be used to enhance the built environments. This is qualitative research. It employed the use of desk methodology. It utilized observations and photographs as research instruments. It found out that some Nigerian artists of various specializations now adapt textiles to their art works and it documented such works. This study concludes by suggesting that various ways in which textile art could be used as decorations in the built environment should be researched into, practiced, appreciated and encouraged in Nigeria to aid its sustainability.

Keywords

• Textiles
• Textile art
• Embellishment
• Built environment
• Textile installations

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