artist | designer | maker | costumer
video by Vuk Dragojevik for the Royal Ontario Museum
protection against
daily living
lifers
Lifers is an immersive installation questioning the hubris that blinds us to the ruinous folly of fashion during the Anthropocene, the Sixth Mass Extinction.
Lifers, 2023
Multimedia installation: 37 salvaged life jackets custom tailored with second-hand clothes; 7 inkjet colour transparencies mounted on plexiglass; two-channel audio soundscape
Lifers exposes the hubris of our addiction to fashion. Human activities have irreversibly changed our Earth, but in this Anthropocene epoch, the Sixth Mass Extinction, we seem oblivious to the ruinous folly of our obsession with fashion. We are sinking in landfills and drowning under the weight of our inaction. Without consideration for environmental contamination or human tragedy, we continue unfettered, to make more, buy more and discard more clothing.
Inspired by the Titanic, 36 lifers float amid whispered echoes of disaster and prescient images of Georgian Bay. The rescued, repurposed, hand crafted lifejackets offer couture protection, ready to help us drift away in the aftermath of cataclysmic catastrophe. As water levels rise, what’s trending for the looming environmental collapse? One must dress appropriately.
Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers at the Royal Ontario Museum.
June 3rd, 2023 - April 1st, 2024.
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/exhibitions/noelle-hamlyn-lifers
Collaborators:
Photographs by Geoff Coombs
Sound Designed by Callahan Connor and Miquelon Rodriguez.
Performed by Callahan Connor and Edwina MacKenzie
Studio Sewing Assistance from Mariana Sandoval-Angel
Lifers worn by Colleen Snell, Andrew Gaboury, Andrew Ryzebol, Lilly Ryzebol, and Noelle Hamlyn
1974 Madison, Ohio
Varsity Lifer
Varsity Jacket found in Kensington Market, Toronto.
Edith Russell after rescue from the Titanic
Fur Lifer for Edith Russell
Inspired by the outfit worn by Titanic survivor Edith Russell. She wore a hobble skirt, two foxes, a broad tail fur coat and diamond shoe buckles.
Child's Kapok Lifer
Sleeves from a beaded jacket from India featuring tambour beading
Lifer
Sleeves from a beaded jacket from India featuring tambour beading
original silk jacket prior to deconstruction
Pink Beaded Silk
Silk Beaded Jacket from the 1980s with tambour beading
Cork Lifer
Fur stole and vintage cork life jacket, referencing the Titanic's cork lifejackets and furs worn by first class passengers
Lifers In Use - Winter
Images by Geoff Coombs
Lifers worn by Andrew Ryzebol and Lilly Ryzebol
Photographed in Georgian Bay, Ontario
March 2023
Lifers In Use - Summer
Images by Geoff Coombs
Lifers worn by Andrew Gaboury, Colleen Snell and Noelle Hamlyn
Photographed in Georgian Bay, Ontario
August 2020
with thanks
