Amanda Bennett
Fibers MFA
SCAD Savannah
Graduates: 2023
Specialisms: Textile Innovation/Textile Art / Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Sculpture
My location: Savannah, United States
Amanda Bennett
First Name: Amanda
Last Name: Bennett
University / College: SCAD Savannah
Course / Program: Fibers MFA
Graduates: 2023
Specialisms: Textile Innovation/Textile Art / Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Sculpture
My Location: Savannah, United States
Website: Click To See Website
About
Amanda Bennett is an American artist working at the convergence of art and science. Her current body of work transforms natural biopolymers, dyes and plant matter into evocative materials as tools for environmental storytelling. She fuses the artistic practices of weaving, embroidery and sculpture, with the scientific practice of chemistry to develop compelling forms that provoke attention, create emotional connection, and encourage empathy towards the natural world. These works explore the beauty and ephemerality of nature and celebrate its cultural and environmental significance to our shared ecosystem.Amanda has been recognized for her design innovation receiving two International Design Awards in the Textile and Materials category (2023) and was named a finalist for the 2022 Hand & Lock Embroidery Prize (UK) where she received the Royal School of Needlework Associate Award for Innovation and Technical Excellence in Hand Embroidery (UK). Her work has also been published in Elle Decor China (2023) and Port City Review (2023).Based in Savannah, Georgia, Amanda recently completed a Master of Fine Arts in Fibers at Savannah College of Art & Design (USA), following a seventeen-year professional career in New York City working in design, construction and project management. She also holds masters degrees in Housing and Urbanism from the Architectural Association in London and in Architecture from the Savannah College of Art & Design.
Material Resistance: Redefining the Human-Nature Relationship
Amanda Bennett’s MFA exhibition titled Material Resistance: Redefining the Human-Nature Relationship was held at The Whitefield Center, a historic house built in the late 19th century in Savannah, Georgia (USA) in May 2023. This exhibition offers an engaging site for reimagining our relationships with the natural and material worlds through the merging of art and science. By using art as a form of resistance to provoke attention, create an emotional connection and build empathy for nature, this body of work offers a thoughtful and responsible approach to a new form of material-making. Reflecting the themes of material reimagination, nature as storyteller, ephemerality and collaboration, the work crosses scales from the intimate (The Bio-Vessel Collection) to the grand (Florescence) and explores planar, sculptural and accumulated form-making. These works, exhibited together, are organized as two interconnected stories framed around the relationship of our global ecosystem to our local ecosystem of coastal Georgia. Each project within the exhibition acts as an environmental storyteller, providing a new way of seeing and considering our relationship with nature. Combining materials from nature – natural biopolymers, dyes and plant matter – with sculpture, weaving, and embroidery techniques, the exhibition shows that we can develop compelling solutions that offer an alternative approach to synthetic materials. Through visual and tactile investigations of form, color, and texture, each piece offers a way to intellectually, emotionally and physically reconnect with nature; it allows us to see ourselves as part of, rather than separate from, the intricate network of our shared ecosystem. The exhibition offers a unique platform for understanding, challenging and re-envisioning how we define the human-nature relationship. Ingredients/Materials: Agar agar, Gelatin, Glycerin, Water, Cotton thread Natural Dyes: Cochineal, Marigold, Hibiscus, Chlorophyllin Plant matter: Spanish moss, Saw palmetto, Oyster shell, Yaupon holly, Witch hazel, White oak, Milkweed, Sassafras Techniques: Weaving, Embroidery, Sculpture, Digital Technology
Competitions
