HARMFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT – Laura Impola

In her textile-based installations, Laura Impola explores themes of consumption, waste, and mass production. The exhibition features over 200 kilograms of recycled clothing, collected in collaboration with the Nextiili textile recycling workshop.

According to Yle News, private individuals in Finland discard an astonishing 54 million kilograms of textile waste annually. Since 2016, textile waste has been banned from landfills. Although textiles are literally in contact with our skin every day, they are far from being purely soft and comforting in an ethical sense. Textile production involves numerous environmentally questionable processes that consumers rarely consider. The textile industry is rife with issues, from child labor and waste accumulation to the spread of toxic chemicals from cotton fields into waterways.

Recycling and ocean plastic pollution have become trendy topics, yet we rarely think about these issues when we start a load of laundry. Dyes, microplastics, energy consumption, and the mountains of waste cast a shadow over every clothing choice we make.

Laura Impola (b. 1988, Pori) is a visual artist based in Tampere. She works at Tampereen Taidehalli and, in addition to her independent artistic practice, is a member of the Tehonrakentajat artist collective. Harmful to the Environment is Impola’s fifth solo exhibition.

Translated with ChatGPT