OOOze, curated by Generator Grant recipient Angie Seykora, investigates the ways in which our increasingly hybridized human bodies adapt to living on a damaged planet. Through exposing working processes that mutate, suspend, and accumulate the material stuff making up more and more of our breath, blood, and tissue, OOOze looks at the 21st century plastic body inside and out.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Seykora will host a clothing swap on Friday, August 9th. Here’s why:
85% of the plastic pollution in the ocean is due to microfibers from synthetic clothing. (National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis, UCSB)
Only 10% of the clothes people donate to thrift stores or charities get sold, the rest goes to landfill. (1 Million Women)
Global clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years, with garments on average being worn much less and discarded quicker than ever before. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
Nearly 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the world’s polyester fiber, which is now the most commonly used fiber in our clothing. Polyester fibers take more than 200 years to decompose. (Forbes)
Globally, we consume about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year—400% more than we were consuming just two decades ago. (University of Queensland)
Millennials (people born after 1981) are twice as likely as baby boomers to toss clothing because it is unfashionable or they are bored of wearing it. (YouGov Omnibus)
A single t-shirt takes 2,700 liters of water to make. The same amount of water an average person drinks over the course of 900 days. (Better Cotton Initiative)
Fashion is responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions; more than air travel and international shipping. Fashion’s consumption of resources – especially water and oil – is projected to double by 2030. (Common Objective)
Nine out of ten workers interviewed in Bangladesh cannot afford enough food for themselves and their families, forcing them to regularly skip meals and eat inadequately, or go into debt. (Oxfam Made in Poverty Report)
By acknowledging fast fashion’s social and environmental impacts, Seykora asks us to slow down, use less, and examine gift economies of exchange as purposeful alternatives to commodity economies. All are welcome to participate. Clothing of every size, for every body type and gender, including non-binary genders, is welcome. Please bring no more than what you plan to take.
Free and open to the public. This exhibition is presented with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Exhibition Dates: July 12 - August 23, 2019
Regular Gallery Hours: Thursday - Friday, 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Angie Seykora received an MFA in Sculpture from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 Seykora was the recipient of an Unrestricted Artist Grant from Amplify Arts and in 2016, was recognized as a Distinguished Artist by the Nebraska Arts Council through the award of an Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2013, she was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, where she was selected for the Art-St-Urban Sculpture Residency in St. Urban, Switzerland. Angie Seykora is an instructor of sculpture at Creighton University. Her work is exhibited and collected on a national and international level.