Textiles as Ecological Memory: Preserving Brazil’s Plant Wisdom in Contemporary Art

In Textiles as Ecological Memory: Preserving Brazil’s Plant Wisdom in Contemporary Art, Cleidi Hearn explores how textile art can serve as a living archive for the cultural and ecological knowledge embedded in Brazil’s native flora. Drawing on the deep history of linen — from ancient Egyptian burial rites to rural Brazilian homespun — she frames fabric not as a passive surface, but as an active witness to the resilience of plants and the communities that have protected them.

Blending botanical history, decolonial thought, and contemporary art practice, this inaugural Botanical Letter invites readers to see textiles as more than aesthetic objects — as vessels of memory, resistance, and renewal.