This drawing explores the world through the lens of a cotton T-shirt, depicting three parallel narratives. The first story (green) traces the environmental footprint of T-shirts through the resources and the pollution that are part of its manufacturing process. The second plot (blue) examines the technologies of the T-Shirt production, from the cultivation of the cotton plant and the associated history of slavery to the industrialized fabrication, distribution, and revenues of today’s surplus economy. The third narrative (red) traces the social impact of T-shirts, juxtaposing the global mobility of consumer goods with the limitations on human mobility, pointing at the labor exploitation in textile sweatshops and the societal polarization over wearables of immigrants and refugees. These superimposed narratives disassemble and reassemble the statistics and facts, speculating their impact on people and the environment to better understand and reimagine the world we live in today.
The drawing was produced for the exhibition “Sanctuary” at the Aga Khan Museum Toronto, to provide a conceptual commentary on the exhibition architecture (see Sanctuary Looms), but it can stand on its own as an independent artwork.
Concept and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija
Research and design team: Natalie Bellefleur, Stratton Coffman, Isadora Simone Stahl Dannin, Emily Jane Wissemann
Exhibition photographs: Toni Hafkenscheid ©Aga Khan Museum, 2020.
Commissioned by the Aga Khan Museum Toronto, with Future Heritage Lab
Materials: digital drawing, print on recycled paper
Dimensions: 18m x 1,8m (60 x 6 ft)
