Invisible sins. Improving social awareness about garment workers through visual methods

Abstract

The garment industry is unfortunately known for its widespread use of exploitative labor practices, such as low wages, poor working conditions, forced labor, and child labor. As a member who has been working in the industry for years, I’ve dealt with many factories and garment workers in China, so I felt an immersive responsibility to address this issue. By using visual strategies to develop a metaphorical narrative, the aim of this project is to spark dialogue and raises consciousness about garment workers. This endeavor led me to delve into the realm of fashion activism, its intersection with art, and the interplay between materials and communication. This final output wants to project on the unlooked is a sentiment of disobedience and reimagination: Disobedience as a product of activism and protest against the status quo. Reimagination is used to activate the disobedience. I used existing concepts such us care labels, embroidery, and printed t-shirts and re-imagined them while giving them new meanings. I dragged them into different media and appropriated them. The installation comprises three parts: Care, Sundress and Unboxing. In each segment, I’ve focused on garments and their unique characteristics, exploring different aspects of the garment industry and shedding light on the experiences of garment workers. Care: Conventionally, care labels are designed to guide consumers on how to maintain their clothes. They are typically hidden within clothing and are only checked or read when doing laundry. In this installation, I’ve amplified these care labels and sewn them onto the interior of a blue worker’s uniform. These labels printed with sentences from garment workers, sourced from articles and news, describing their lives and emotions. The voices from garment workers, which carry a more human touch compared to cold data. Metaphorically, these care labels convey the idea of caring, not just for the clothing but also for the laborers behind its production. The blue worker’s uniform symbolizes factory laborers and also serves as a canvas for displaying the enlarged care labels. Sundress: “Sundress” is a poem penned by Wu Xia, a Chinese garment worker who, while employed at a garment factory, became interested in writing. I discovered her poem “Sundress” in the book “Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Workers’ Poetry.” Despite its focus on factory life, the poem lacks explicit signs of resentment or suffering. Instead, it filled with vivid imagery of the dress and aspirations for a brighter future. The poem is embroidered with white thread throughout the entire dress, these details are not particularly obvious from a distance. Analyzing the poem led to the concept of metaphorically utilizing the garment as a canvas upon which these female workers “wrote” their thoughts and dreams. Simultaneously, these emotions fail to reach the consumer, who, purchasing and wearing the garments, often remains unaware to its history and the craftsmanship that went into its creation. Consequently, these sentiments become “invisible” marks on the garment. Unboxing: This segment draws its inspiration from the popular phenomenon of “unboxing” videos on social media, where influencers receive a box of new clothing, display them in front of the camera, and share the experience online. However, in this unique video, the model emulates the actions of showcasing garments, all while videos play directly on the fabric itself. These videos unveil the reality hidden behind the allure that consumers often miss when purchasing clothing. In this artistic portrayal, garments serve as a canvas onto which these revealing videos are projected, transforming them into a dynamic backdrop. Adjacent to the video, there’s a pile of clothing, symbolizing garments seemingly ejected from the screen. This portrayal reflects upon the issues of mass production and over consumption within the fashion industry.