Maia Charleston

Earthly Terrors

Earthly Terrors is a four-look art-to-wear collection that critically examines humanity’s complex relationship with nature in a postindustrial world through the lens of feminist environmental philosophy. Engaging with Romantic art and theories of beauty and the Sublime, this collection dissects the tension between Western aestheticism in nature versus what is rejected as worthless.

Through intricate handcrafted textile techniques and biomimetic design, Earthly Terrors challenges colonial and anthropocentric ideals of ecological beauty by celebrating its often-overlooked antithesis. Organic elements such as mold, insects, rot, fungi, thistles, and decay—typically associated with disgust—are reimagined in a way that confronts, disrupts, and redefines human-centered aesthetic norms. By embracing these unsettling yet organic forms, the collection forces viewers to reconsider their conditioned perceptions of the environment.

More than a visual statement, Earthly Terrors is an invitation to reflect on our own connection to the natural world. It serves as both a reminder of the planet’s power and a call to acknowledge its fragility, urging us to move beyond human-centered perspectives toward a more nuanced appreciation of the Earth’s untamed beauty

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Media

Collection Cover featuring collaged images of microscopic mycelium mushrooms.
Thematic collage featuring an assortment of elements found on the underbelly of nature. Insects like beetles and moths, roots and brambles, wilted blossoms, prickly plants, and rotten roses.
Thematic collage layering dried flower petals, dead daisies, and feminine forms dressed in white over an image of a gnarly mossy oak.
Thematic collage layering an overscale dried dead thistle stem and ghostly female forms passively gracing a peaceful yet eerie marsh.
Thematic collage layering Victorianesque female figures arranged in dissociative poses amongst an eerie late autumn backdrop blurred by fog and dark earth tones.
Thematic collage layering dried dead flowers over an ethereal female face over an image of tree roots travelling below the earth.