salla salin

Performative installation
2012–
Created together with Timo Rissanen
Images: Amos Anderson Art Museum / Helsinki 2012, Sheila and Arnold Aronson Gallery / NYC 2013, Spiral Art Centre / Tokyo 2014, Felleshus / Berlin 2016
Performer in Helsinki and NYC: Janelle Abbott
Photographs: Salla Salin

15% is a performative installation addressing the global fashion system, an industry interconnected with both social and ecological systems.

While billions of garments are produced in the world yearly, an average of 15% of the fabric used in this process ends up as off-cut waste: material largely thrown straight to landfill. The material effects however are only part of the whole: among the social effects related to the industry are for example the working conditions and income situation of the factory workers who often work in so called sweatshops.

The work addresses these questions by creating a production line in a gallery. A performer, working on the production line, makes plain white t-shirts. The whole process, from cutting the fabric to ironing the final product, is put on display and documented. Each shirt is numbered, the off-cut waste is packed boutique-style, and both the shirt and the accompanying unique waste are sold together – for the price of 4,95€.

15% was originally part of the “Boutique – Where Art Meets Fashion” -exhibition in Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki, curated by Annamari Vänskä. This exhibition was also part of the Helsinki Festival and World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programmes.

Since 2012 15% has been exhibited in Washington (2013) New York (2013), in Tokyo (2014), in Berlin (2016) and Wellington (2016).

http://sweatshop-in-shop.com