Danielle O’Malley: ECO-CRISIS
“Plastic bags can be crocheted into ropes and hammocks; bed sheets can be cut up and sewn into elaborate quilts; old clothing can be pulped into handmade paper, etc. By incorporating harvesting (up-cycling) into my practice, my work reflects the space/location where I make my work.”
Summer I 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Home ReSource
Bales of Fabric
Home ReSource
Up-Cycled Hog Wire, Electrical Wire, Fabric, Plastic Bags, Hospital Gowns
How have your material choices changed over the years?
As a conceptual artist, material choice is just as important to me as engaging form and impactful space usage. I align most naturally with using clay and hand-building processes – shaping earthen material into sensual form influenced by domestic and industrial objects that are symbolic of warning. When I do not have access to ceramic facilities, I gravitate toward waste materials (industrial surplus) that can be re-contextualized through textile processes. I marry my ceramics with up-cycled materials to create a tension that is metaphorical for humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
I find that almost anything can be manipulated with fiber art processes, allowing me to personalize my materials and mold them into sculptures that speak to my concern about our eco-crisis. For example, plastic bags can be crocheted into ropes and hammocks; bedsheets can be cut up and sewn into elaborate quilts; old clothing can be pulped into handmade paper, etc. By incorporating harvesting (up-cycling) into my practice, my work reflects the space/location where I make my work. These objects bring locality into my work and speak to the need to rely on locally available resources in order to lower carbon emissions. Finally, up-cycling brings new life to old “things,” allowing these “old things” to continue sharing their inherent histories.
In progress sculptures by Danielle at Home ReSource
Detail of Bail of Fabric.
Describe your Open AIR Residency experience.
Participating in an Open AIR Residency at Home ReSource was a life-changing experience. My practice has always been restricted by what I can financially accomplish. Having access to a large space with (basically) unlimited materials lifted this restriction and allowed me to dive into a body of work I couldn’t have brought into this reality without the support of Open AIR and Home ReSource.
I arrived at this residency with an open mind. I knew that I was making work for my upcoming solo exhibition at the Holter Museum of Art (October 2025), and that my work was being guided by concepts of environmental sustainability and stewardship. I was surprised by the materials (treasures) I unearthed at Home ReSource. Having never been to HR before, I was expecting a plethora of construction materials. These resources were definitely available in mass amounts, but I was surprised to stumble upon large amounts of fabric.
Dangerous Tangle
Home ReSource
Up-cycled Metal Road, Up-cycled Flagging
I dove into these fabric piles with gusto. One idea led to another, and I had trouble keeping up with my own ideas. It was an amazing feeling – having endless ideas, a process that continued to spark new ones, and access to all of the materials I could ever want. By the end of my five-week residency, I completed 10 monumental sculptures that spoke to the negative environmental consequences that coincide with fast fashion. This body of work also highlighted the need to rely on locally available resources and have healthier boundaries with our precious natural resources.
The support from both Open AIR staff and Home ReSource staff was equally as amazing. Everyone was so encouraging and so accepting of me as a creative individual. When I reflect on this time, I miss the people who made this experience possible and enriched the experience by being themselves as much as I miss the workspace/materials.
Detail of Dangerous Tangle.
Tell us about your most recent solo exhibition.
Where the Deer and the Antelope Played was on display from September 5 – October 18th at the University of Montana Western’s Fine Art Gallery. This exhibition was influenced by iconography of the western landscape that are indicative of wide-spread carbon footprint and the devastation that colonialist values have inflicted on the land (fences, property markers, smoke stacks).
Here is an excerpt from the press release about the exhibition: “Fences, property markers, and scars on the land (from extraction processes) are as integrated into the western landscape as flora and fauna. They act as boundaries and barriers that protect, block, identify, guide, and contain. They are also representative of colonization and the devastation that colonialist values bring to the land. According to Canadian researcher Max Liboiron, “Pollution is not a manifestation or side effect of colonialism but is rather an enactment of ongoing colonial relations to land.” O’Malley’s work is a call for an anti-colonialist approach to the present-day eco-emergency. Her exhibit suggests that healthy boundaries with the natural world must be implemented so the Earth can heal from the misuse and abuse humanity inflicts upon it.”
Where the Deer and the Antelope Played
September 5 2024 - October 18 2024
UM Western Fine Arts Gallery, Dillon MT
Materials: Hand-built clay, Adobe Clay, Latex Paint, Up-cycled Fabric, Willow Branches
What are you up to now (post Open AIR)?
Since Open AIR, I have been extremely busy trying to further my personal artistic career and trying to help preserve the arts and art access to all in Montana as Executive Director for the Art Mobile of Montana (we are hiring a teacher! Visit artmobilemontana.org for more information) and Coordinator for Montana Clay.
This fall, I was a ceramics instructor at the University of Montana Western, where I also had a solo exhibition at The UM Western Fine Arts Gallery (Where the Deer and the Antelope Played). I received three grants: one from Not Real Art, one from the Montana Arts Council, and one from the Myrna Loy Arts Center. I participated in the MT Clay Tour and exhibited at the Livingston Center for Art and Culture’s group show Art in the Anthropocene.
Up-cycled Yarn and CD’s by Danielle
Detail of Up-cycled Yarn and CD’s.
Watch Danielle at work at Home ReSource!
Danielle at Home ReSource.
See Danielle’s Artist Talk!
Visit Danielle’s website and follow her on Instagram!
