Artist That Show Fast Fashion Working Confidtions

Past Diane Richard

Rachel Breen'due south exhibition "The Labor We Habiliment" is sitting in the U.S. Bank Gallery, on the second floor of Mia, waiting for the doors to open. "I literally finished installing it right before the museum closed," she says, noting the museum's decision to temporarily shut on March 13, ahead of the statewide shutdown, due to the COVID-nineteen pandemic.

Breen, who teaches art at Anoka Ramsey Customs College, makes art near consumption—what we buy, what we toss—and, most of all, the treatment of the workers who brand our stuff. Now that many stores are closed, and shopping (including retail therapy) has shifted online, she has another idea.

"This is a great fourth dimension to be mending, darning, embroidering," she says. "Go through your apparel. Patch your jeans. Recollect about what stuff can be remade into. I'm actually into visible mending right now."

Minnesota creative person Rachel Breen installs her MAEP exhibition, "The Labor We Wear," at Mia.

In fact, she was going to concur a public mending circle as function of her evidence, to honor the 109th anniversary of the deadliest garment factory disaster in the United States. That will accept to expect, even if garment piece of work need non. "I call back of my sewing machine as my third arm," she says.

She also recommends going online and querying the companies that made your dress in the first place. "Hashtag your garments and send it to the brand," she says, "asking them how it was made."

Here, in a recent conversation, she explains her views on the global garment industry and how that's reflected in her evidence at Mia, which is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP).

Your MAEP exhibition, "The Labor Nosotros Article of clothing," asks visitors to think almost the workers who sew their garments. Why do y'all call back it'south important?

In a nutshell, because they're beingness treated unfairly. It really feels that elementary. In part, it's considering of how we store and consume clothing in the U.S. We're non encouraged to run across where our clothes come from. We don't come across it, and then we don't retrieve well-nigh information technology. Once nosotros encounter the supply chain, I promise that will motion people to exist more than conscientious virtually how they consume clothes, which could accept a positive impact on garment workers. One of the challenges is that this connectedness is invisible. That's a big problem. My work becomes a catalyst for seeing these connections with workers.

You interviewed women workers in People's republic of bangladesh, where many U.S. and European retailers outsource garment product, and these women asked consumers to delight not cold-shoulder their wearing apparel. This is their livelihood. Only if Americans can't exist sure the workers are existence treated equitably and humanely, how else should we appoint with these companies?

I wish there was a simple reply. There's not.

Here'south an amazing statistic: In 1960, virtually 10 percent of our household upkeep was spent on clothes, and 95 percent of wear was made in the U.S. Today, only about 3.v percent is spent on clothing and ii percent of the clothing we purchase is made in the U.S. This incredible shift has happened for a lot of reasons. Merely one of them is because labor is so cheap in other places. Why? Because brands don't have to worry about workers' safety there. That's a crime.

And then, about importantly, we need to support organizations that are working to unionize garment workers. [Workers] need to have their voice so they tin advocate for themselves. In Bangladesh, it's unsafe for women who desire to organize. They tin can be fired, harassed. A lot of garment workers, they can't read or write, so the role that the wedlock organizers play [as educators] is critical. [Workers] don't know they accept a correct to become to the bathroom on their shift, or that the emergency door shouldn't exist blocked.

At that place are things we can do individually. We tin can buy less. Nosotros can buy used. Nosotros tin mend what we have. Those who can buy more than sustainably, deservedly, often expensively, should. But nosotros tin't shop our way out of this. Brands don't own the factories where their clothes are made so they avoid responsibility. Our job is to force per unit area brands, to hold their feet to the burn down. I also desire my piece of work to exist about the importance of the collective, our collective action.

Do you see momentum behind forcing the garment industry to establish transparent methods to protect workers' rubber and livelihood? If so, what independent regulators' labels practice you look for and trust?

Shirt sleeves in Rachel Breen'south exhibition, "The Labor Nosotros Wear."

Some really great organizations are there to educate consumers. One is Fashion Revolution. It sprang from the fashion industry, acknowledging they have a role in this. Fashion Revolution asks you to accept a photo of your shirt with the label outside and hashtag it: "Who made my brand?" Brands are starting to respond. Locally, WeAreThreaded.co is a great resource. [You'll find Breen'south full listing of resource at the end of this article.]

Practice you lot come across any thread, equally it were, between the two deadliest garment factory disasters, almost a century autonomously: the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 and the Rana Plaza Collapse of 2013?

What I hope is that people see them as one story. They're intimately continued. They're both tragedies where garment workers died because of choices factory owners made. The people working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Mill were working nether the same kind of conditions that the people of Rana Plaza were working nether—underpaid and unsafe. The demographics are like: They're poor, rural people who came to the metropolis for jobs so they can feed their families and send their kids to school. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory people were immigrants, Jewish and Italian. And [in both tragedies, about of the victims were] women.

What did you call up when you heard about the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh?

I was like, what year is this? How does this happen in the modernistic world? I thought we won this battle of factory safety. There are hard-won victories for garment workers dating to the early 1900s.

After the Rana Plaza Collapse, I made a connection with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. I've known well-nigh it all my life … it was this tragedy that led to important condom laws in this state. The importance of labor unions in their role of advocating for people is something I have e'er valued.

A ton of artwork has been washed well-nigh the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: plays, operas. The Rana Plaza Collapse is much more than recent. I thought I needed to go to Bangladesh to observe out more than most it. It was really center-opening and heartbreaking. It bestowed this weight of responsibility on me: how exercise I share their stories?

Y'all have said your artwork "makes visible numbers that are hard to encompass in an attempt to remind united states of the human labor nowadays in the clothes we wear." I was overwhelmed by the number of those killed in both disasters, whose private names you listed in your labels. What reaction exercise y'all promise viewers will have?

Shirt collars in Rachel Breen's exhibition, "The Labor We Clothing."

I want people to rethink how we shop, how we eat, and virtually the individuals who make our clothing. We have to eat less. Look at the organic food movement and how information technology'south changed over the past 20 years. A lot more of us are buying organic nutrient. Or, if not organic, local. A lot of people now think about how and where their food is grown. That can exist the model.

It's too true that the making of clothing is complex. If you have a cotton wool shirt, it may be grown in the U.S., then sent to India or another land, where information technology's dyed. Think about the atmospheric condition of the people who dyed it—did they accept gloves or masks? And what happened to the chemicals of the dye?  Then it was sent to a factory, or factories, to be made. Then the supply concatenation is complicated.

Your artwork features visible stitching of used garments—is that a hint?

With fast way, wearing apparel are fabricated poorly, so we go rid of them more quickly. It's disposable. Only if a button falls off a shirt, don't give the shirt to the Salvation Ground forces—sew the push button back on.

I approach my piece of work from an ethical perspective. I desire to address injustice in my life, not just as an artist but as a human beingness. Individual action is expert, but it'south non enough. Nosotros all buy our underwear from Target; we are all a part of this system. Ultimately, my work is actually a critique of capitalism. There, I've said information technology.

A lot of people salvage their anxiety with "retail therapy." Where exercise yous turn for a sense of relief and promise?

Fortunately, I'm an artist. Making is where I go. Simply there are good reasons to purchase well-made objects. Purchase less but buy better. If you buy from a big brand, transport an email request about the working conditions of that brand. Need they exist better! Keep the pressure on.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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Rachel Breen's Source List

Organizations working on labor rights in the global garment industry:

• Fashionrevolution.org

• Cleanclothes.org

• Labourbehindthelabel.org

• Laborrights.org

For college students, the group Students United Against Sweatshops:

• Usas.org

Apps for ethical ownership:

• Goodguide.com

• Ethicalbarcode.com

• Goodonyou.eco

• Notmystyle.org

To find local designers, brands, artists and leaders working to make fashion a tool for good:

• Wearethreaded.co

Podcasts on manner and sustainability:

• Wardrobe Crunch with Clare Press

• Conscious Chatter with Kestral Jenkins

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