Report by Alejandra Salazar
On August 13 at 1:00 p.m.,Professor Jesse Shipley began his talk by asking why Africa serves as the end of the fast fashion consumer chain. This led into the topic about how we think about creativity and waste—how unwanted items from one place can be turned into something new somewhere else. The session drew an audience of about 10 faculty members and 30 students.
He discussed his solo exhibition called Routes of Rebellion, which shared stories of different people through short films. The exhibition space was a large, empty building that had been repurposed for art. Bales of secondhand clothes were used to build the space and served as furniture. Old jeans that were too worn to reuse were used to help make the rooms more soundproof. The speaker explained that these bales of clothes helped create a warm, welcoming environment where people could watch the films and spark interaction between individuals.
He then screened a fascinating 20-minute excerpt from his film Anatomy of a Revolution, which explored Ghana’s anti-imperial culture through the lenses of dance and performance art. One performer read announcements by coup leaders, government soldiers, and news broadcasters of rebellion, while another artist performed a dance in a former slave dungeon. Through this film, Professor Shipley reflects of how the spirit of revolution is embodied and remembered through art and performance.
The speaker then described a Call for Proposals that went out to artists and designers in Ghana. They were given 65 bales of secondhand clothes shipped from Europe to Ghana and asked to turn them into new works of art. The artists responded in different ways—sorting the clothes, stripping them down, turning them into yarn, and making hats, bags, and even landscapes. One artist made artwork with characters, another took clothes apart and sewed them back together in experimental ways, another made bags and hats from the stripped clothes, and one created a textile landscape. The projects showed how waste could be transformed into creative and useful things. Through his work, Professor Shipley gave us a better understanding the role of repurposing clothing and how this expression of art connects us.
