Garments and Garment Workers

The portrait work deals with the role of women garment workers in a globalised world and their possibilities of emancipation and questions our Western value systems for textiles and garments and their production. The work took me to Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where I met with women in the factories. As a result of our conversations, portraits were created, revealing the vestimentary links between our clothing cultures.
“Would you like to wear what you have produced?” An unusual sounding question in the factory opened up a dialogue and collaboration with the women. An encounter with the Western consumer goods which they produce, but only recognise in fragments due to a production process based on the division of labour.
In terms of working conditions, the garment industry is experiencing a repeat, despite its technological development. The influences of a global market result in social, societal, and cultural effects in the producing countries.