Hamblin, Natalie (AUS)
Quel Dommage
Natalie Hamblin is a sustainable fashion designer. Her work is deeply rooted in sustainability and reflects a commitment to reducing textile waste. Natalie’s art practice is driven by a great desire to advocate for the environment.
Although now Queensland based, Natalie was born in Hobart, Tasmania. Her connection to the environment began during her early years. Surrounded by vast raw wilderness, with unlimited access to flora and fauna, Natalie had the freedom to explore the natural world, to collect and create using the natural resources at hand.
The threats to Tasmania’s unique and precious environment were also embedded at an early age: “Before I could walk, I was part of history, being carried around on my parents’ backs protesting the damming of the Franklin River, in the streets of Hobart city with Bob Brown’s foundation. From this moment on you could say, protecting the environment and using my art as a tool to speak up for nature was what I was born to do.”
‘Quel Dommage’ (French) Meaning: what a pity, what a shame, harm done, an opportunity passed, collateral damage.
“This is my response to the global destruction of old forests, where the carcasses of 300-year-old trees lay fallen, lost, with no time to grow old trees back. Largely inspired by Tasmania’s ‘Mountain Ash’ or otherwise known as ‘The Swamp Gum’, the tallest flowering tree.
My work bares an environmental reminder for us all to live in a more sustainable way. We can’t grow back what we have lost in time to save our eco system. The materials that I have used in making my work also send a message of being more mindful to avoid single use packaging, cardboard boxes and grocery bags.
My goal as an artist is to raise awareness about the environment and the impact of human activity has on it.”
Materials: Recycled cardboard boxes, cut and hand rolled to represent tree stumps. Paper grocery bags cut into strips to represent bark on a tree. Grocery bag handles and florist wire. Headpiece: egg cartons.
See the Work on Film
Photos Credit: Grant Wells Photo