SHELLS - THE COLLAPSE OF RANA PLAZA
Copenhagen // 2017
Shells was a commission from the Danish branch of the global NGO Fashion Revolution. The work was a part of a group exhibition that, along with a series of other initiatives e.g. the FashionRevolutionWeek, the FashRevHall 1-day festival and the #WhoMadeMyClothes campaign, created attention on the injustice happening every day in the world’s second most pollutant industry, fashion.
The focus of the exhibition was the 5 years day of the Rana Plaza tragedy where a factroy in Bangladesh collapsed and 1100 workers died despite knowledge and warnings of the risk. Many workers are forced to work despite danger of many kinds, and the exhibition focused on the human factor and the working conditions.
Shells depicts the emptiness left behind when - mainly woman - workers ultimately die from dangerous work at the factories. The woman are often mothers, and it’s the motherhood that has disappeared behind the empty shells, that are left for their children. Furthermore, the work Shells depicts clothes that woman workers wear in Bangladesh, showing how far their own clothes are in style and design from the clothes they produce for the western fast fashion industry.