Andrea Rager
12 pm | Clark Hall Room 206 | 11130 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH 44106
William Morris’s Strawberry Thief, designed in 1883 for indigo-discharge and wood-block printed cotton furnishing fabric, has become one of the British artist’s most iconic and popular patterns. Reproduced on a startling range of merchandise, from mugs to tea towels, Doc Martens to designer handbags, the vivid, whimsical charm of Strawberry Thief has proven to have an enduring appeal well into the twenty-first century. Inspired by the sight of intrepid thrushes pilfering strawberries from the gardens of Kelmscott Manor, the design layers a tangle of flowers, leaves, vining stems, and ripe fruit, punctuated by two pairs of birds that alternately turn towards and away from each other. This talk will examine the dynamic play in Morris’s textile of what Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer has described as the natural “web of reciprocity” between native bird and berry. Drawing new attention to the unique acoustic ecologies of Morris’s design, this talk will argue that the birds serve not merely as adornment or symbol, but as environmental witnesses sounding a warning call. Adopting a multisensorial approach that engages with ecocriticism, animal studies, and bioacoustics, this talk will consider how Strawberry Thief urges the viewer to appreciate avian soundscapes as part of healthy ecosystems. Although now divorced from the sustainable craft practices advocated by Morris, this talk will consider the ecological imperative and anti-industrial protest embedded within the disarming allure of Strawberry Thief.
This talk is adapted from Dr. Rager’s new manuscript, Canary in the Coal Mine: British Avian Aesthetics at the Dawn of the Anthropocene, which illuminates the role of avian aesthetics within the context of global industrialization and extractive capitalism across Britain and the British Empire. Her research was supported last spring by a Baker-Nord Institute Faculty Fellowship.
An informal lunch will be provided.
Registration requested. Register HERE.
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