CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART GRADUATE DREGREE EXHIBITION 2025  
GRADUATES \\ WORK \\ ABOUT \\
RACHAEL
SEGREST
COX

DEPARTMENT
FIBER

ORIGIN
JACKSON, MS 



As we flatten and fly over landscapes, we forget. Some colors are from pigments that record deep time; others are ‘fugitive’— not lightfast, fleeting.

As daily life becomes interior, we forget. Cultural vernaculars fade.

In a time of global ecological crisis, my art practice is an experiment; if we choose to boldly make art using slow, seasonal, open processes that allow environments to push back, assert, and influence our decisions, what do we discover? Do we remember?

My process is about navigating change in chaos and returning to the imagination. My methods follow natural cues and rhythms: birth, growth, death, decay, and regeneration. Every Transient Composition begins with a deep encounter with a specific environment. The environments become art and research labs as I reflect on ways categories and boundaries are created.

I develop a living, local color archive from natural dye processes, fermented materials, soil, wood, biomaterials and grown mycelium. Textiles are built and rearranged into Transient Compositions using connective processes of binding, knotting, stitching, and interlocking warp and weft. I use the artificial and outdoor landscapes to boldly reimagine spaces for contemplation, connection, and remembrance.
 




Sedimentary Altar Cloth with Ruptures
2024, TC2 digital weavings, handwoven rya knots, hemp, wool, cotton, indigo, eucalyptus, madder, and natural brown heirloom cotton, 120” x 70” x 46”  
Cranbrook Color Strata and Mycelium test samples
2024, Dye liquor from solar jars, glass vials, wild hues dye color samples from solar jar, sound panels, felted wool from 16 weeks in a solar jar, cherry bark, motherwort, pine needles, sassafras bark, elderberry leaves and insect taxidermy pins, elm mushroom mycelium experiments, petri dish, glass, mycelium packaging. Dimensions vary.  
Birch Bark Sound Panels
2024, Sound panels for sound absorption, birch bark, iron, copper, alum, and citric acid, cotton gauze, mordant drip paintings, 46” x 100” x 5”