Labels, Labelled, Labeling

HALMRA is a collaborative project by Meisen Jamir, Ava Xia, Hamda, Jaewon, and Jenny, created as part of the AcrossRCA Climate Crisis initiative. The project explores the hidden costs of fast fashion—environmental degradation, exploitation of labor, and manipulative consumerism—by examining the concept of “labels” both as physical tags and as societal constructs.

Through a series of monumental textile installations, HALMRA reclaims and redefines the act of labeling. Sculptures made from waste fabrics, clay, melting textiles, and traditional materials like Hanji are re-labeled with QR-coded tags that provide critical information about the fashion industry. These tags link to stories, statistics, and research that expose the destructive impact of oil extraction, cotton farming, garment overproduction, and global waste dumping.

Each monument tells a powerful story: from the poisoning of Indigenous lands in Canada to the drying of the Aral Sea, from textile landfills in Chile to overworked labor forces in Bangladesh. The tactile and visual nature of the work invites viewers to engage deeply, sparking reflection and awareness.

By turning fashion’s most overlooked element—the label—into a tool of resistance and education, HALMRA transforms passive observation into active critique and collective consciousness.