A workshop for the Festival of Making – By Jeremy Hutchison
This workshop reflects on the garments that British consumers donate to charity. Each year, millions of used clothes are shipped to sub-Saharan Africa, where they are sold in street markets. In parts of West Africa, these are called Dead White Men’s Clothes.
In this workshop, participants will learn about this global trade, before producing their own Dead White Men: small monsters made from recycled clothes. Using pre-prepared wooden armatures, participants will style their own miniature zombies from scraps of recycled clothes. (These clothes have been sourced from a recycling plant in London). It will be a fun, simple process – with immediate results.
This workshop has been developed as part of a series: the miniature monsters will join an archive that will be exhibited during the 2023 British Textile Biennial. We therefore propose that the output of this workshop contributes to this archive – of course with all participants credited for their involvement.
More information about the Festival of Making and this workshop available here