Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers

Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers
  • Closed
Included with General Admission.
June 3, 2023 to April 1, 2024
  • Level 3, European Rotating Exhibitions Gallery

About

 

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Fashion style.

Explore the impact of textiles and fashion on the planet's water quality — and what we can do about it — in a powerful ROM-organized art installation by Canadian visual artist, Noelle Hamlyn.

Over twenty repurposed and retailored life jackets, hand-crafted by the artist from reclaimed and discarded garments, present a striking visual metaphor to draw attention to the current environmental crisis in the textiles and fashion industries. Each life jacket (or "lifer") tells a unique story, encouraging us to take a closer look at our own fashion consumption behaviours, and how they have the power to affect the health of water resources worldwide.

Stunning, large-format photography by Canadian photographer, Geoff Coombs, accompanies the installation, creating an immersive experience that pulls us into the narrative as we consider our legacy of clothing consumption and our ongoing relationship with the fashion industry.

Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers opens a complex and important conversation about climate change, and how fast fashion and rampant overconsumption are accelerating the crisis with each new season.

Explore More

Learn how the global textile and fast fashion industry plays a major role in climate change, social justice, water quality, and environmental degradation.

As an active voice for climate hope, ROM is committed to sharing knowledge and insights from research, studies, data, and other fact-based evidence to help raise awareness of the effects of climate change. 

New exhibition highlights the damaging global effects of garment overconsumption.

ROM Press Release, April 21, 2023

This exhibition is generously supported by the Royal Exhibitions Circle.