Emma Wijnsma

How much can you carry?

We've produced enough clothing worldwide to clothe the next six generations, and yet we continue to buy more and more. "How much can you carry?" shows just how much that actually is in a direct and tangible way.

I, Emma Wijnsma, am fascinated by fashion, style, and the role clothing plays in our daily lives. For this work, I designed a mechanism that allows me to put on all my own clothes, step by step. In the video, you see how the pile grows, and how carrying so many clothes becomes increasingly heavy and cumbersome. What starts with a single item of clothing ends in an absurd, almost comical pile-up.

The installation consists of photos, a video, and the mechanism itself. Not to say that you shouldn't buy anything anymore, but to show how much we already have and how easily it can disappear from view.

My goal is to make people reflect on their purchasing behaviour - not from a place of guilt, but from a place of awareness. How can we revalue what we already possess?