Fast Fashion/Slow Art

Dates:

January 30, 2020 - August 2, 2020

Location:

Boyd Gallery

"Fast Fashion / Slow Art" features films, videos, installations, and performances by an international group of emerging and established contemporary artists and filmmakers.

Online Programming

Please enjoy this "reintroduction" to Fast Fashion/Slow Art by Bibiana Obler and Phyllis Rosenzweig, co-curators, created following the show's transition to a virtual format in the spring of 2020. The curators reflect upon new perspectives created by the global impact of COVID-19, and members of the BCMA staff speak to new materials and programming made available online. This video was recorded with the co-curators in conversation with Anne Collins Goodyear, Allison Martino, and Amanda Skinner.

Explore an online version of this exhibition.

Selected Works

A still from the video "15-hours" — *15 Hours*, 2017, 16:9 film, color, sound by Wang Bing. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris .

a wooden sculpture by the water in Boston — *Electroknit Dynamaxion*, 2019, on the Boston HarborWalk, machine-knitted cotton on wood panels, and documentary materials, by Cat Mazza. Photo by Jon Bakos.

A photo of a baby in a knitted golden-colored outfit with pom-poms. — *Yvonne*, 1997, video, black-and-white and color, sound, 14 minutes, by Rosemarie Trockel. Courtesy of Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany

a black and white photo of a woman in a t-shirt — *Stories*, 2017, video, black-and-white, sound, 2:04 minutes, by Martin de Thurah, Courtesy the artist and Epoch Films, New York

A photo of workers in a clothing factory making pink t-shirts — National Public Radio’s Planet Money, *Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt*, 2013, interactive website. © 2013 National Public Radio, Inc., originally published on NPR.org in December 2013, and used with the permission of NPR. Photo credit: Joshua Davis/NPR

The back of a woman's head against a blue backdrop — *Live feed; printer-error identification station and operator at an Italian luxury-silk textile factory; Or, before ‘Leaving The Factory’, the meditative disposition’s instinct for privacy*, 2010 HD color video, sound, 2:49 minute loop by Julia Brown. Courtesy of the artist.

a black and white photo of a seated woman hand-knitting, in front of an industrial knitting machine — *Frau Fiber vs. the Circular Knitting Machine*, 2015, digital video, black-and-white, sound, 4 hours, 32 minutes, by Carole Frances Lung. Courtesy of ILGWU archive.

A man in a blue shirt working in a factory — *The Threader*, 2007, digital video, color, sound, 5:23 minutes by Senga Nedgudi. Courtesy of the artist.

A close-up photo of a hand, flipping through a magazine — *Martha Rosler Reads “Vogue,”* 1982, video, color, sound, 25:22 minutes by Martha Rosler. Courtesy of Martha Rosler and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

A group of women in a factory, sewing intentlly — *Sweatshop—Deadly Fashion*, 2014, video, five-episode web series. Courtesy of *Aftenposten*, Oslo, Norway

About

Fast Fashion / Slow Art features the work of an international group of emerging and established contemporary artists and filmmakers to explore the making, distribution, and use of affordable, mass-produced apparel for quick consumption often known as "fast fashion." Collectively these makers encourage scrutiny of clothing production today, exploring such timely issues as sustainability, technology, labor, and consumer culture. In making visible critical issues which may typically escape our notice, the exhibition encourages "slow looking" to facilitate conversation about the complexity of the fast-paced, global garment industry, which is an integral part of our everyday lives.

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.

Explore an online version of this exhibition.

Read the press release. Read the exhibition labels.