Online Exhibition: Fast Fashion, Slow Art (Bowdoin College Museum of Art)

The contemporary garment and fashion industry is built upon many connections between different parts of the world. With the production, movement and trade of clothes arise pressing issues related to sustainability, in terms of both labor and the environment. This is especially true when we consider “fast fashion”: inexpensive, trendy clothing produced for a mass market. Fast Fashion / Slow Art aims to provoke conversations about the global production and distribution of clothing and textiles. This online exhibition also expands this discussion of the garment and fashion industry to address new issues emerging from the global COVID-19 pandemic. It explores important and timely questions:

Is it possible to protect workers’ rights and ensure safe working conditions while keeping up with consumer demands?
How does technology affect the experience and conditions of labor? Can design and technology offer sustainable solutions to the environmental impact of fast fashion?
What are the merits of local and handmade garments?
What role do art and popular culture have in raising consumer consciousness?
In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we buy and give value to our clothes? How has it revealed new ways of understanding the interconnectedness of the global garment industry?

The works by artists and filmmakers in this show respond to these questions through metaphor, poetic sensibility, irony, protest and humor. They encourage “slow looking” in making visible critical issues that may typically escape our notice. The exhibition asks us to slow down and consider the complexities of the garment industry that is part of our everyday lives.

Aftenposten

Live feed; printer-error identification station and operator at an Italian luxury-silk textile factory;

Julia Brown

Martin de Thurah

Frau Fiber vs. the Circular Knitting Machine

Carole Frances Lung

Cat Mazza and Lattice20 collective

National Public Radio

Senga Nengudi

Martha Rosler

Rosemarie Trockel

Wang Bing

Programming and Resources

Watch online programs including a discussion about the exhibition, make craft activities from home, and read additional materials about the artists featured in Fast Fashion/Slow Art.

About the Project

We invite you to view this online exhibition, which complements a gallery exhibition that was on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from January 30, 2020 to August 2, 2020 and at George Washington University from August 8, 2019 to December 15, 2019. Fast Fashion/Slow Art is organized by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in cooperation with The George Washington University Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, and the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. At Bowdoin the exhibition is supported by the Riley P. Brewster ’77 Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund, and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.

Information about the exhibition's gallery presence in the museum, including installation photos and press, is available on the museum's website. A video introduction to the exhibition with the co-curators is also included to view online.

This online exhibition was designed by David Francis, a member of the Academic Technology and Consulting Group, Information Technology, Bowdoin College, in collaboration with staff at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. It was created using the following technologies: cascade content management system (CMS), HTML5/CSS, JavaScript, jQuery (JavaScript library), and Vimeo. It was last updated June 2020.

The Museum thanks the many individuals who contributed to making this digital exhibition possible, especially the artists for sharing their work. The Museum also extends its appreciation to co-curators Bibiana Obler and Phyllis Rosenzweig, staff at Bowdoin Academic Technology, including David Francis, Academic Technology and Consulting Group, Information Technology, Bowdoin College and BCMA staff including Anne Collins Goodyear, Suzanne Bergeron, Allison Martino, and Amanda Skinner.