Feil Farge Produksjoner, Forever Togethe, costumes and a D-I-Y kit
In 2007, 26.8 kilo textile waste was produced per person in Norway, 10.5 kilos came from private households, 16.5 kilos of clothes were imported into the country per person, and each Norwegian bought more than 16 kilos of clothes.
Starting out as a reaction against the over-production and over-consumption of clothes, Charlotte Nilsen collects cost free fabric donated through various sources, and together with some young, creative people who are taken in as interns via the Labour Office, she runs a small-scale factory for redesign of clothing. Her main aim is to promote the idea that everybody can do it - it’s easy and fun! On a deeper level, her work engages into the reappropriation of the tradition of sewing and re-making of clothes in our everyday culture, as well as to reveal stories embedded in each of the garments and fabrics. Metaphorically, a technique as modest as a garment’s seam can allude to the slow and cohesive, a cultural mode that shuns the mindless speed in an ever increasing fragmentation of our perception of time. In addition, recycling is an important strategy towards increased social responsibility and sustainability.
Nilsens’ Redesign Tivoli costume collection (2009) is inspired by the traditional Sami apparel. The flounces are a direct reference to the holbi. Nilsens’ ‘multiplicity model’ is for everyone to make and wear regardless of nationality or ethnicity, while at the same time commenting on the politics of ethno-/national symbolism as well critiquing the fashion industry itself. Charlotte Nilsen (born 1969) is an artist based in Tromsø (Norway). She works with re-design of clothing, photography, installation, video and performance. Under the label Feil Farge (‘Wrong Colour’) she has been re-sewing/re-designing second-hand clothes, first running Feil Farge as a sewing shop (1993-1998), then in recent years, a production company/factory, where also young, unemployed people serve as interns. Tivoli Redesign (2009-) is being ‘manufactured’ through courses for adults and pupils, and mediated through various exhibitions and performances. A special textile waste dustbin is designed for collecting clothes in the city. Nilsen holds a craft certificate in dress and costume sewing (1993), and a MA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2002).
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