One More

A multimedia exhibition consisting of two installations, a series of art photographs, and a documentary film.

One More highlights the problem of excessive clothing consumption and raises questions that lead to the deeper causes of accumulating things.

The main question of the project:

Is buying one more thing a step closer to myself, or a step away from myself?

Format:

A large-scale installation.

What it consists of:

In the centre of the hall there is a high podium with a large mass of clothing. A human hand with a needle emerges from the upper part. The object is built on an internal frame: the clothing is fixed as an outer layer, so the installation keeps its shape and reads as a complete museum work.

The task of the hall:

To show the problem of excessive clothing consumption itself.

The viewer sees how separate items turn into a mass. Clothing stops being perceived as a personal wardrobe and becomes a volume that occupies space and presses down.

The main question of the hall:

At what point do things become too many?

Format:

A dark spatial installation.

What it consists of:

In the centre of the hall hangs a chrome fishing hook. A very bright beam of light is directed at it. The hook shines, reflects the light, and immediately gathers the gaze.

Around it there are transparent glass capsules / digital capsules / 3D screens with figures of girls. The models can be filmed from several angles and placed inside these structures. Their movement is slow, repetitive, almost mechanical, like characters in a video game.

The task of the hall:

To raise the question: why do people buy so much clothing?

After the first hall, the viewer has already seen the scale. The second hall shifts attention to the impulse to buy. Here clothing appears as bait.

The hook shows the mechanism of seduction. The models in capsules strengthen the feeling that the fashion image turns into a system: a person looks, compares, desires, and repeats the purchase.

The main question of the hall:

Why do I keep buying when I already have enough clothing?

Format:

A photography project with local participants.

What it consists of:

The hall is built around a series of large staged photographs. The participants are girls and women who have a large amount of clothing.

The photographs are taken in the courtyards of the participants’ homes, on the lawn, in a personal or semi-domestic environment. In the frame, a woman is surrounded by clothing; the clothing may be piled almost up to her neck. The visual aesthetic is closer to American cinema: sunlight, a yard, a house, a lawn.

The frame may include personal objects, toys, a children’s playground, sportswear, overfilled wardrobes, wardrobes brought out onto the lawn, things connected with the participant’s personal story, and clothing that the participant is ready to pass on.

The photographs are accompanied by short text fragments from the participants’ stories.

Participants may speak about why they have so much clothing, what it is connected with, how it has affected them, which things are important to them, which things were bought without much thought, which things they keep, and which things they are ready to pass on.

The task of the hall:

To make the question personal.

After the second hall, the viewer asks: why do people buy so much clothing? In the third hall, this question moves to specific women, their homes, wardrobes, habits, memories, and decisions.

The viewer sees someone else’s story and may recognise herself in it. Here a more precise question appears: why do I buy this or that piece of clothing, do I have excessive clothing, and what stands behind my purchases?

Connection with Charitable Foundations

The project assumes cooperation with foundations that accept or send clothing. Therefore, in the participants’ stories it is important to show what they do with excess things: keep them, pass them on to others, sell them, send them to a foundation, or prepare them for transfer.

In this way, the third hall connects a personal story with an action. The viewer sees that something can be done with excessive clothing and can use a partner foundation or a mechanism for passing things on.

The main question of the hall:

And what about me? Why do I do this?

Format:

A short film / documentary film.

What it consists of:

A small darkened space with a projector or screen. The film shows how the photography project was created and how the shoot was carried out.

The film includes how the project’s photo shoot took place; how Michelle works on set; how the clothing is gathered; how the participants show their things; conversations with participants; memorable things belonging to mothers or grandmothers; things bought without much thought; things that may go to charity; the participants’ children, especially girls, if the family agrees; how the girls are dressed; what their favourite things are; and what they like about their mother.

The task of the hall:

To show the process of creating the project and the existing ways of working with excessive clothing.

The film reveals what the viewer does not see in the finished photographs: preparation, conversations, doubts, the selection of things, work with participants, and the family’s reaction.

Through the film, the viewer sees that excess can be dealt with practically: some things can be kept, some passed on, sold, altered, reused, or sent to a foundation.

This hall completes the exhibition through real stories and real actions. After watching it, the viewer can relate what she has seen to her own wardrobe and understand which step is applicable to her.

Transform is the author’s first published project engaging with excessive clothing consumption, image, and identity. The project was published in Picton Magazine in 2022.

Within One More, this line of research becomes the starting point for a larger development of the subject in the format of a multimedia exhibition.