Dirty, doesn’t fit, has a stain, started to pill, not flattering, an ugly gift from grandma, making space for spring…This familiar process—clothing, wearing clothing, staining and ripping, shrinking and laundering and over-laundering, throwing out used or unwanted clothes, buying more clothing, rinse, repeat—accumulates as an average of seventy pounds of clothing discard per person in the United States annually. “70 Pound Robe” is a garment composed of approximately 150 discrete articles of discarded clothing. It is a visual component of a larger project “excavating” a one-ton bail of clothing from the Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin Counties. These items each have their own biographies, blemishes and nuances and intricacies, as well as their own unique relationships with the people who wore them and the clothes and materials they came in contact with. They are shown here in “70 Pound Robe” reconfigured as entombed specimens or relics of the social lives they were once intimately entangled in.
Try it on and experience the weight of our collective consumption and individual compromise. Materials: Silk organza, cotton, polyester, viscose, lycra, old jeans, wrestling uniform, company t-shirts, ballerina costumes, skirts, blouses, button down shirts, baby onesies, basketball jersey, button-down shirts, silk, rayon, linen, cashmere, trousers, tank tops, sweatshirts Made in: Oakland, California, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mexico, U.S.A., Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam
Exhibition at IF/THEN Studio
