For Project 1, we had the thinking skill of contextualization once again. For my topic, I chose to talk about Garment Worker Exploitation. The fast fashion and garment industry today is one of the main driving forces of climate change, and unfortunately, this sect of the economy relies as much on the exploitation of their employees as much as it does on fossil fuels. These workers, consisting mainly of women and children in Asia, Africa and the Americas, work in dangerous, run-down factories to produce clothing at a lightning fast speed and in return, are paid in pennies. Moreover, many workers also endure verbal, physical and sexual harassment from their employees, and are prohibited from forming unions. In addition, because the factories are dangerous, accidents or fires can occur, like the 2012 Bangladesh Factory Fire, inflicting many injuries and casualties.
Art
For my art portion, I decided to take a big leap and make an entire dress from scratch. My purpose for making this dress was to understand the craftsmanship and creativity to make clothing, all of which was denied to the employees in those garment factories, who were forced to act as emotionless machines that worked 24/7 rather than humans, and were treated as such by their employees. This product was a huge leap from what I would normally do, even for an art project, and as it turned out, in reality, it was too much for me to handle. To alleviate the stress, I decided to go to a thrift store and purchase second-hand clothing so I could upcycle it into a dress. As for the dress itself, I decided to combine styles from traditional clothing in the countries in which garment worker exploitation was particularly prominent, like in Cambodia, India, Vietnam, etc. In doing so, I wanted to highlight how rich white men would exploit women of color in their drive to fill their wallets, and yet, despite that, these women stayed strong and perseverant, representing their countries with grace and dignity.
To make this dress, I looked at images of cultural dress around the world, tried to blend it together to make the final product. I also documented the process, my thoughts, my ups and downs and more.
Unfortunately, making this project, despite being proud of all it represented, wasn't that fun for me. As I had no experience in making clothes, and limited time (I chose to combine my APOLLO classes into one period, so I had one period for two classes). It was stressful, to say the least. I would spend many sleepless nights, and my point in mentioning that is not to invite pity for myself, but rather to show that the process behind making good works of art is messy and imperfect. And this was most certainly the case for this project, however happy I am with how it turned out.
History
For my history portion, I decided to create a few creative writing pieces written in the perspective of those who experienced exploitation. There is a main character for every story: Amara, Chenda, Muhammad, and Radha. Amara is supposed to be an eyewitness and survivor of the 2012 Bangladesh Factory Fire, Chenda is a young woman in Cambodia who experiences sexual abuse at her garment factory job, Muhammad is labor rights protestor from Indonesia, and Radha is a child laborer from India. Their stories are meant to reflect the real-life experiences that people have faced and continue to face today.
Like my art project, I also had trouble with this history portion, staying up for many sleepless nights. I am very pleased with how it eventually turned out, but due to art taking up most of my time, I had to devote extra hours for my history writing pieces, and sacrifice more of my free time. All in all, I am happy with how it turned out, but one thing I think I can safely say I learned is that all those sleepless nights were most certainly not worth it!
THE PROCESS This project could not have been come to be were it not for my extensive research, which can be seen below.
Thank you for your time and consideration in viewing this project!