An exhibition at Michigan State University’s Union Art Gallery featuring the work of MSU alum Kristen Duckworth invites visitors to explore the intersection of nature, the human body, and imagination through artwork that transforms familiar landscapes and biological forms into otherworldly environments.
The exhibition, “Tracing the Earth,” on display through Saturday, Dec. 12, brings together Duckworth’s interdisciplinary artistic practice, integrating fiber art, drawing, wearable art, and installations to explore relationships among place, environment, and imagined worlds.
Travel and field research play a central role in Duckworth’s creative practice. She has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Antarctica, and national parks across the United States, providing opportunities to study diverse landscapes, ecosystems, cultures, architecture, textiles, plants, and other natural and cultural elements.
“As I move through new places, I collect photographs, sketches, patterns, textures, colors, and observations that become an evolving visual archive,” Duckworth said. “These experiences provide a foundation for imagining environments that exist somewhere between the familiar and the unknown.”
Drawing on these experiences, Duckworth reimagines elements of the natural world to create imaginative environments that blur the boundaries between the familiar and the unknown.
“I am particularly interested in how the natural world might transform over time,” Duckworth said. “Plants, anatomical structures, geological formations, marine life, and other biological systems become starting points for creating speculative organisms and landscapes. Rather than recreating environments I have encountered, I alter, combine, and exaggerate their characteristics to imagine what a future ecosystem, or an ecosystem from another world, might look like.”
Based in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Duckworth is an Assistant Professor of Drawing and Fiber at Arkansas State University. She earned her Master of Fine Arts from Michigan State University, where she concentrated on drawing and painting, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design from the University of North Texas.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States and internationally, including exhibitions in Seoul, South Korea; Nova Scotia, Canada; and Australia. She also has received numerous grants and awards supporting her creative research, and her work has been featured in publications including Fiber Art Now.
A reception for the “Tracing the Earth” exhibition will take place Friday, Nov. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m., with an artist talk by Duckworth at 5 p.m. The event offers visitors an opportunity to learn more about her creative process, artistic influences, and exploration of imagined environments.
