Collective Work Clothing Department is Not Closed

In 2022 CIMO (Center for Research in Fashion and Clothing) commissioned a new work by artists Ben Cain and Tina Gverović. The focus is on workwear, especially the kuta, which in many ways represents the history and social image of the worker. The authors bring to life the structure and fragments of the body as a basis for the future construction and production of workwear and work-related identity. Departing from the normative codes of work uniforms, here the kuta is poeticized and speaks of subversion and disjunction inscribed in the patterns and cuts of work clothes. In some pieces it’s easy to think of protection and safety, power and dignity; while others refer to the contemporary worker’s breaking body as collateral damage within toxic spaces of material or immaterial labour.

This is not an exhibition that makes ‘fashion’ out of workwear. This is not fashion, but rather sculpture that considers the implications of romanticising and aestheticising workwear. We’re looking at types of workwear (and work, and workplace relations) that might be associated with conditions that are enabling, and those that associate with restriction, control and damage. Workwear is just frame through which to explore new types bodies and subjectivities that are defined by work. We’re thinking about what workwear has meant in the past and what it might stand for in the future.

• https://tinagverovic.com/slow-jacket/