Clothing donated to our West Norwood and Wallington charity shops features in a new Barbican Art Gallery exhibition, ‘RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology’.
We donated 10 bags, around 95kg of clothing, to the exhibition running until 14 January which focuses on the relationship between gender and ecology. It highlights ‘links between the oppression of women and the degradation of the planet’.
Emmaus SLC was approached by exhibition sponsors, the Vestiare Collective, the world’s first B Corp (sustainably certified) fashion resale platform. The company’s philosophy, ‘Long Live Fashion’, champions the recycling of fashion as an alternative to overproduction, overconsumption and wasteful practices in the fashion industry.
Our donation of unusable clothing features in an exhibition installation highlighting the sustainable work we do to recycle and re-sell fashion for the benefit of our community, along with a QR code directing visitors to our website.
Ross Watkins, our Partnership Manager, said: “We were approached by the Vestaire Collective to provide donated clothing that would be unusable for use in the Barbican exhibition.
“Donating old, damaged and unusable items of clothing was a more environmentally sound approach for both the Vestaire Collective, and us, as sustainability is at the heart of both our organisations.
“We are delighted to be involved in this expansive exhibition which highlights the ongoing environmental challenges and the need for greater sustainability in the fashion industry and beyond.”
The exhibition brings together photography, film, and installations by nearly 50 international women and gender non-conforming artists. Their work is united across decades, continents, and media by an urgent engagement with, and protest against, the ongoing ecological crisis.
Platforming work by artists from the Global Majority and Indigenous peoples, RE/SISTERS explores the indivisible bond between environmental and social justice, offering a vision of an equitable society wherein people and planet alike are venerated and treated fairly.
With women and marginalised communities often placed at the forefront of advocating and caring for the planet, RE/SISTERS offers a depiction of nature that explicitly resists the mechanical, patriarchal order that is organised around the exploitation of natural resources and the oppression of “othered” bodies.
RE/SISTERS advocates for empowerment in the face of destruction, reflecting a radical and intersectional brand of eco-feminism that is diverse, inclusive, and decolonial. For more information, visit the Barbican Art Gallery website.