The Consuming Project in association with Rigout Productions and Open Circle Arts in County Kilkenny have developed and presented BUY ME.
BUY ME is a multidisciplinary theatre presentation that looks at our relationship with fashion. It explores the issue of ethical clothing and the environmental impact of mass consumption. This performance was the product of a community collaboration between artists and participants, exploring our relationship with fashion through textile and discussion based workshops with Ita Morrissey and Dee Harte.
It followed four stages:
- Workshops with women to discuss patterns of consumption, how people feel about clothing and what relationships and behaviours are evident.
- Workshops to create constumes and props from textiles for the perfomers in the piece of art. All the materails used were recycled with a view to zero waste
- Engaging with the performers about the message and narratives that would best explore these issues in an artistic and coherent way, whereby the audience would be both entertained and informed.
- Finally the piece, BUY ME, was rehearsed and performed.
The work was devised with professional performers and a musican (Éadaoin Breathnach) and is an innovative and effective way of exploring how society looks at materials and their consumption, textiles and clothing in particular.
Here is a video outlining the work:
Open Circle Arts – The Consuming Project – Buy Me from Old Mill Pictures on Vimeo.